<J 


I 


13 


THE   DECAY   OF   THE  CHURCH 
OF   ROME 


THE  DECAY  OF 
THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 


BY 


JOSEPH    McCABE 


NEW  YORK 
E.  P.  DUTTON   AND   COMPANY 

31    WEST   TWENTY-THIRD   STREET 
1910 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Introduction              .....  i 

II.  The  Latin  World  :  France  .  .  .11 

III.  The  Latin  World  :  Italy    .  .  .  .43 

I V.  The  Latin  World  :  Spain  and  Portugal  .             .  68 

V.  The  Latin  World  :  Spanish  America         .             .  97 

VI.  The  English-speaking  World:  Great  Britain    .  128 

VII.  The     English-speaking     World:     The     British 

Colonies    ......  151 

VIII.  The     English-speaking    World:     The     United 

States         ......  171 

IX.  The  Germanic  World:  The  German  Empire       .  196 

X.  The  Germanic  World:   The  Austro-Hungarian 

Empire        .                         .                         .  227 

XI.  The  Germanic  World:  Switzerland         .             .  248 

XII.  The  Germanic  World:  Belgium     .             .             .  258 

XIII.  The  Germanic  World:  Holland   .            .            .  276 

XIV.  Russia            ......  285 

XV.  Conclusion     ......  296 

Index.            .            .            .            .            •  311 


THE  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH 
OF  ROME 

CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

IS  the  Church  of  Rome  gaining  or  losing  ground 
in  the  worn  field  of  religious  controversy  ? 
No  other  issue,  perhaps,  in  the  spiritual  struggle 
of  our  time  attracts  a  wider  interest,  yet  is  concealed 
from  the  inquirer  by  a  more  perplexing  tangle  of  con- 
tradictory statements,  than  this.  To  many  the  Church 
of  Rome  seems  to  silence  all  question  by  its  display 
of  vitality.  Growing  outward  from  the  most  fascinat- 
ing city  in  the  world,  sending  its  roots  deep  into  the 
life  of  the  past  2000  years,  spreading  its  branches  to 
the  outer  limit  of  the  five  continents,  it  gives  one  an 
instinctive  feeling  of  strength  and  endurance.  It 
has  survived  the  fiercest  storms  that  have  swept  over 
Europe  for  many  ages.  Ancient  Rome,  at  least  in 
the  days  of  Diocletian,  employed  its  vast  energy  to 
tear  it  from  its  soil,  yet  in  a  century's  time  it  looked 
down  on  the  ruins  of  the  Western  Empire.  It  stood 
proudly  out  from  the  barbaric  waves  that  rolled  down 
from  the  north,  and  gathered  from  them  greater  force 
than  ever.  It  flourished  through  the  lethal  degrada- 
tion of  the  next  five  centuries,  and  drew  fresh  energy 
from  the  menacing  revival  of  intellectual  life.  It 
reeled  for  a  moment  at  the  mighty  upheaval  of  the 
Reformation,  and  then  produced  a  power  that  almost 


2  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

restored  its  proportions.  It  came  almost  unscathed, 
apparently,  out  of  the  first  revolutionary  fires  of  a 
century  ago.  Is  it  possible  that  it  will  succumb  to 
the  new  and  subtler  forces  that  seek  to  loosen  its 
great  frame  in  our  time  ? 

It  is  hardly  surprising  that,  with  so  wonderful  a 
history,  the  Church  of  Rome  should  still  impose,  even 
on  many  who  wholly  reject  its  creed,  a  firm  belief  in 
its  solidity  and  durability.  The  prophecy  with  which 
Macaulay  flattered  it  in  a  rhetorical  mood  has  been 
repeated,  in  less  graceful  and  more  sincere  terms, 
by  social  observers  of  the  most  diverse  schools.  The 
more  jealous  adherents  of  other  Christian  bodies  have 
not  indeed  been  disposed  to  share  that  belief,  save 
in  the  sense  that  Rome  will  lose  its  proper  characters, 
and  merge,  an  indistinguishable  element,  in  the  fed- 
eral Church  of  the  coming  time.  But  social  students 
who  regard  the  religious  movements  of  our  age  from 
neutral  eminences  have  been  remarkably  unanimous 
in  the  expectation  that  Rome  will  outlive  all  the  other 
Christian  bodies.  The  Positivist  pays  Rome  the 
tribute  of  borrowing  what  he  thinks  to  be  her  im- 
perishable forms.  The  Rationalist  is  almost  always 
convinced  that,  in  his  familiar  phrase,  the  last  stage 
of  his  war  will  be  the  struggle  of  Rome  and  Reason. 
The  new  science  of  sociological  anticipation  is  entirely 
with  them.  Mr  H.  G.  Wells  foresees  a  decay  of 
Protestantism  and  growth  of  Catholicism  in  the 
twentieth  century ;  he  announces  to  us  that  proces- 
sions of  shaven  monks  will  be  more  familiar  on  the 
moving  platforms  of  the  tense  cities  of  the  twenty- 
first  century  than  they  are  in  the  streets  of  Europe 
to-day. 

In  this  state  of  public  feeling  the  Protestant  is  apt 
to  take  alarm  at  every  parochial  increase  of  Catholicism, 
and  join  with  trepidation  in  the  common  cry  of  papal 


INTRODUCTION  3 

expansion.  Little  reflection  is  needed,  however,  to 
discover  that  this  common  expectation  of  an  increase 
of  Romanism  does  not  rest  on  statistical  inquiry,  but 
on  much  frailer  considerations.  To  the  Positivist 
indeed  it  should  be  evident  that,  in  sharing  Roman 
forms,  he  has  incurred  a  share  in  Rome's  decay. 
Nor  is  the  Rationalist  more  fortunate  in  the  grounds 
of  his  conviction.  Rome  alone,  he  says,  rejects  the 
modern  clamour  for  the  use  of  reason  in  religious 
matters,  and  bids  its  followers  establish  their  allegiance 
rather  on  the  sentiment  of  faith  and  the  dictates  of 
authority.  Where  the  corrosive  action  of  reason  is 
admitted,  he  urges,  dogma  surely  decays ;  and  the 
day  will  come  when  those  who  indulge  private  judg- 
ment will  find  the  ground  eaten  from  under  them, 
and  the  more  emotional  will  shrink  in  alarm  into  the 
temple  of  Romanism,  there  to  meet  the  last  tide  on 
the  massive  rock  of  authority.  The  flaw  of  the  theory 
is  that  its  starting-point  is  wholly  false.  The  Roman 
Church  has  more  than  once  warmly  rejected  the 
notion  that  she  asks  her  followers  to  rebuke  reason 
and  stand  by  faith  alone.  Her  theologians  in  fact 
denounce  as  "Protestantism"  the  theory  that  faith  is 
an  emotion,  and  not  a  deliberate  adhesion  of  the  in- 
formed judgment.1  Time  after  time  the  Church  has 
compelled  those  of  her  apologists  who  inclined  to 
depreciate  reason  to  subscribe  to  the  proposition  that 
"reason  precedes  faith  and  prepares  the  way  for  it." 
Thus  the  whole  Rationalist  anticipation  of  her  success 
is  groundless  and  negligible. 

In  more  specious  language  the  historian  and  the 
social  observer  put  forward  their  belief  in  the  dura- 
bility of  Rome.  The  non-Roman  Churches,  they 
urge,  are  temporary  and  comparatively  frail  structures, 
built  in  a  moment  of  heated  dissent,  out  of  the  material 
1  "Theologia  Dogmatica,"  H.  Hurter,  S.J.,  i.  472, 


4  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

of  the  older  Church  ;  and  they  declare  that  the  motive 
for  this  dissent  and  for  the  erection  of  separate 
Churches  —  the  corruption  of  Rome  —  is  gradually 
losing  its  force.  Many  ages  ago  the  Romans  doomed 
the  great  Flavian  Amphitheatre  to  decay,  and  built 
churches  and  houses  out  of  its  denuded  fabric.  Their 
little  structures  are  tumbling  into  ruin  to-day,  or  have 
long  since  crumbled  into  dust,  and  the  massive 
Coliseum  rises  in  silent  triumph  over  their  puny  re- 
mains. The  pyramids  of  Gizeh  have  been  despoiled 
by  the  builders  of  many  ages  ;  but  their  enduring  mass 
has  looked  down  on  the  decay  of  one  generation  of 
despoilers  after  another.  So,  the  social  prophet  says, 
will  the  colossal  framework  of  the  Roman  Church 
look  down  on  the  crumbling  fabric  of  the  dissenting 
bodies. 

But  the  spectacle  of  the  Coliseum  looking  down  on 
the  shrunken  churches  at  its  feet  is  hardly  a  congruous 
figure  of  the  situation.  Rome  has  now  far  less  than 
200,000,000  followers  :  the  Protestant  Churches  have 
some  300,000,000.  Indeed  the  theory  that  the 
Protestant  Churches  are  no  more  than  embodiments 
of  temporary  revolts  against  passing  abuses  that  were 
detected  in  an  enduring  system  is  a  very  superficial 
one.  It  accords  neither  with  the  broad  features  of 
religious  evolution  nor  with  the  facts  of  religious 
psychology.  Buddhism,  Confucianism,  Mohammedan- 
ism— nay,  Christianity  itself — had  the  initial  character 
of  a  protest  or  revolt,  yet  the  life-giving  motives  and 
the  structures  endure.  In  nearly  all  the  great  schisms 
of  religious  history  the  virility  has  passed  into  the 
dissenting  body. 

We  must  abandon  all  hope  of  forming  a  sound  fore- 
cast of  Rome's  future  on  these  speculative  grounds, 
and  approach  the  subject  on  the  lines,  and  in  the 
temper,  of  ordinary  sociological  research.     The  pro- 


INTRODUCTION  5 

cedure  is  more  profitable,  if  more  laborious  and  less 
artistic,  and  the  conclusion  is  far  more  interesting. 
One  has  to  sift  the  literature  of  many  lands  for  positive 
indications  of  Rome's  position,  but  they  are  at  length 
discoverable  in  sufficient  abundance  to  yield  a  very 
safe,  and  a  somewhat  startling,  conclusion.  I  may 
formulate  at  once  the  thesis  that  will  be  rigidly 
demonstrated  in  the  following  chapters. 

Instead  of  showing  signs  of  increase,  the  Church  of 
Rome  is  rapidly  decaying,  and  only  a  dramatic  change 
of  its  whole  character  can  save  it  from  ruin. 

Recent  religious  statistics  assign,  on  the  average, 
some  250,000,000  out  of  the  550,000,000  Christians  of 
the  world  to  the  rule  of  the  Vatican.1  If  this  estimate 
were  even  approximately  correct,  we  should  find  the 
utterances  of  the  present  head  of  the  Roman  Church 
not  a  little  perplexing.  A  few  years  ago  Rome  lost 
the  ablest  pontiff  it  has  had  in  modern  times,  and  over 
his  remains  the  Catholic  press  chanted  a  psalm  of 
triumph  for  the  progress  that  their  Church  had  made 
since  the  death  of  Pius  IX.  The  successor  of  Leo 
XIII.,  a  simple,  honest,  courageous  bishop,  more 
endowed  with  piety  than  diplomacy,  then  took  up 
his  station  at  the  Vatican  observatory.  Surveying 
Italy  and  the  Catholic  world  for  the  first  time  from 
that  peculiar  eminence,  and  after  his  first  consultations 
with  the  chief  officials  of  his  Church,  Pius  X.  broke 
into  a  remarkable  lamentation.  Only  in  the  dark 
visions  of  Revelation  could  he  find  anything  like  the 

1  Benham's  Dictionary  of  Religions  estimates  the  Roman  Catholics 
at  220,000,000.  The  same  figure  is  given  by  a  Dominican  priest, 
Pere  Sertillanges.  On  the  other  hand  a  pseudo-statistical  article  in 
The  Strand  Magazine  (August  1906)  gives  the  number  as  353,000,000 
— 100,000,000  more  than  the  most  zealous  Catholic  claims ! 
The  utter  futility  of  all  these  "statistics"  may  be  gathered  from  the 
fact  that  they  all  assign  36,000,000  Catholics  to  France,  where 
there  are  certainly  not  more  than  6,000,000. 


6    DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

spectacle  unrolled  before  him.  Every  movement  of 
his  age  betrayed  to  his  saddened  eyes  the  activity  of 
Antichrist.  Such  sombre  passages  as  these  occur  on 
every  page  of  his  first  encyclical  to  the  Catholic  world  : 

"The  present  most  afflicted  condition  of  mankind 
did  exceedingly  affright  us.  For  who  does  not  know 
that  now,  more  than  in  all  past  ages,  the  society  of 
men  is  stricken  by  a  most  grave  and  deep  disease, 
which,  growing  daily  graver  and  eating  it  utterly 
away,  hurries  it  to  ruin  ? 

"It  must  needs  be  that  he  who  ponders  on  these 
things  will  fear  lest  this  perversity  of  men's  minds 
may  be,  as  it  were,  a  foretaste  and  a  beginning  of  the 
evils  that  are  to  be  looked  for  in  the  last  days." 

Such  profound  dejection   on  the  part  of  the  man 
who  knows  best  the  real  strength  or  weakness  of  his 
Church  cannot  be  encouraging  to  our  prophets ;  and 
we  shall  see,  as  we  proceed,  that  this  first  lamentation 
was  only  the  prelude  to  a  career  of  tragedy,  as  Pius  X. 
saw  how  his  adoption  of  spiritual  weapons,  instead  of 
the  carnal  devices  of  his  predecessors,  only  accelerated 
the  pace  of  the  catastrophe.     The  main  purpose  of 
this  work  is  to  discover  the  grounds  of  the  Pope's 
pessimism,  and  see  if  it  be  anything  more  than  the 
bursting  of  too  inflated  a  hope.     After  minute  and  pro- 
longed research  in  English,  American,  French,  Italian, 
Spanish,   Dutch  and  German  works  and  periodicals, 
some    personal    acquaintance     with    Catholicism     in 
several  countries   and    a   correspondence    with   well- 
placed  observers  in  most  countries,  I  am  able  to  give 
a   fairly  precise   account   of  the   present  position  of 
Romanism,    and   to    compare   this    with    its   position 
about  the  middle  of  the  last  century.     The   result  is 
singularly    interesting.       One    finds   that    instead   of 
having  made  considerable  progress  during  that  time, 
it  has  lost  nearly  a  third  of  its  dominion.      Moreover, 


INTRODUCTION  7 

the  process  of  decay  has  been  increasingly  accelerated 
of  late    years,  and    the    causes  of  it   are  of  such   a 
character  that   there  is   no  reasonable  ground   for  a 
hope   of    arresting   them    during   the    pontificate    of 
Pius  X.     The   familiar   figure  of  about  250,000,000 
represents  faithfully  enough  what  the  Roman  Catholic 
population  of  our  planet  ought  to  be  (really  270,000,000) 
if  the  Vatican  had  done  no  more  than  retain  its  fol- 
lowers of  eighty  years  ago,  and  their  children.     But 
the  figures  and  facts  I  have  gleaned  from  the  literature 
of  Europe  and  America  show  that  at  least  80,000,000 
must  be  deducted  from  this  total,  if  it  is  to  express, 
in  any  reasonable  sense,  the  actual  number  of  Roman 
Catholics.     This  is  indeed  a  moderate  expression  of 
the  Church's  loss,   and  it  was  the  discovery  of  this 
appalling  leakage  from  his  Church  during  the  brilliant 
reign  of  his  predecessor  that  wrung  that  simple  cry 
of  distress  from  the  uncalculating  pontiff.     Romanism 
has  entered  upon  a  remarkable  phase  of  disintegration. 
This  summary  statement  will  be  fully   vindicated 
in   the   course    of  the    following    inquiry.     For    the 
moment  I  will  give  only  a  few  of  the  larger  indications 
that  may  reconcile    the    reader   to   so   sensational   a 
declaration. 

It  is  usually  thought  that  the  Roman  Church  is 
making  progress  at  least  in  England  and  the  United 
States.  That  is  quite  easily  shown  to  be  not  merely 
untrue  but  singularly  opposed  to  the  truth.  In  the 
relevant  chapter  we  shall  find  American  Catholics 
complaining  that  there  has  been  a  loss  of  ten,  fifteen 
and  even  twenty  millions  in  the  States  in  the  course 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  mainly  in  the  second 
half  of  the  century.  As  to  England,  I  published 
some  years  ago  in  The  National  Review  a  careful 
analysis  of  Roman  Catholicism  which  made  it  clear 
that  there  has  been  a  leakage  in  this  country  of  about 


8  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

2,000,000  during  the  half  century.  France,  of  course, 
figures  at  the  head  of  the  list.  If  it  be  true — a  point 
we  will  discuss — that  there  are  only  some  4,000,000 
sincere  Catholics  left  in  France,  as  Sabatier  maintains, 
and  the  political  situation  seems  to  imply,  the  loss 
here  since  the  Second  Empire  must  be  counted  in 
tens  of  millions.  Several  millions  must  be  added  to 
the  loss  from  Italy.  North  Italy  is  lost  to  the 
Vatican,  and  Central  Italy  is  throwing  off  its 
allegiance.  Spain  and  the  Spanish  peoples  of  South 
America  add  several  millions  more  to  the  list  of 
seceders ;  and  the  leakage  in  Austria,  Germany  and 
other  countries  will  bring  the  total  well  beyond  the 
figure  I  have  given. 

But  the  numerical  aspect  of  the  result  is  not  the 
most  important  for  the  serious  and  disinterested 
observer.  The  real  strength  of  the  Church  is  far 
below  what  its  shrunken  arithmetical  total  would 
suggest,  however  low  a  figure  we  may  adopt.  Time 
after  time  we  find  that  the  Church  is  utterly  unable 
to  carry  its  most  cherished  designs  in  countries  where 
even  the  corrected  statistics  seem  to  give  it  a  pre- 
ponderant strength.  I  need  only  mention  the  situa- 
tion in  Italy  or  Mexico  or  Austria.  Catholic  Italians 
are  now  encouraged  to  vote,  yet  they  have  only 
exhibited  their  pitiful  weakness.  Mexican  and  other 
Spanish  American  Catholics  show  a  similar  impotence. 
This  and  other  circumstances  warn  us  that  the  figures 
we  reach  must  be  examined  from  a  further  point  of 
view.  Their  cultural  value  must  be  estimated.  We 
must  see  what  is  the  proportion  of  children  in  them, 
and  what  the  proportion  of  those  illiterate,  or  poorly 
literate,  masses  whose  creeds  are  little  more  deliberate 
than  those  of  children.  I  do  not  mean  that  we  should 
apply  any  high  cultural  test,  as  in  that  case  the  failures 
would  always  work  out  at  about  eighty  per  cent.,  in 


INTRODUCTION  9 

all  religions  and  apart  from  them.  But  compare  a 
more  or  less  educated  and  alert  democracy  with  a 
quite  or  nearly  illiterate  one.  Contrast  Piedmont 
or  Lombardy  and  Calabria :  Prussia  and  Bavaria : 
France  and  Spain.  The  result  is  very  ominous  for 
the  Church,  and  profoundly  important  for  the  social 
prophet.  It  shows  that  fully  eighty  per  cent,  of  the 
actual  supporters  of  the  Vatican  belong  to  the  illiterate 
masses  of  the  population ;  and  we  shall  further 
discover  that,  in  proportion  as  education  is  given  to 
them,  they  tend  to  discard  their  allegiance  to  Rome. 
When  you  go  on  to  analyse  the  figures,  where  it  is 
possible,  into  men,  women  and  children,  you  find 
another  weakness  in  Rome's  180,000,000  followers. 

Further  comment  on  the  results  of  my  inquiry  must 
be  postponed  until  the  conclusion,  but  I  may  at  the 
outset  express  a  hope  that  the  inquiry  has  been  con- 
ducted in  the  spirit  of  the  historian  or  the  social 
observer.  Rome  is  still  one  of  the  great  spiritual 
powers  of  the  world,  and  any  appreciation  or  forecast 
of  social  forces  that  shakes  off  our  insular  limitations 
must  know  it  accurately.  It  has  now  shrunk  far 
below  Protestantism,  Confucianism,  Buddhism,  Hindu- 
ism or  Mohammedanism,  in  regard  to  the  number  of 
its  followers,  but  it  is  the  second  great  force  in  what 
we  vaguely  call  our  Aryan  world.  Apart  from  com- 
parison, indeed,  its  internal  development  is  one  of 
very  great  interest.  Romanism  of  the  older  type  is 
obviously  doomed.  How  will  it  choose  between  its 
proud  attributes  of  immutability  and  immortality? 
What  is  the  real  nature  of  the  process  that  is  enfeeb- 
ling it,  and  how  far  is  it  likely  to  go  ?  These  are  high 
questions,  and  they  who  would  answer  them  must  have 
a  very  sure  knowledge  of  Romanism  to-day.  Notic- 
ing that  people's  estimates  of  its  recent  fortunes  and 
its  present  position  are  always  vague,   and  generally 


10    DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

contradictory,  I  have  gathered  together  what  indica- 
tions can  be  found,  and  present  them  in  this  essay. 

For  convenience  of  arrangement  I  take  the  chief 
branches  of  the  Roman  Church  in  three  groups  :  the 
churches  of  the  Latin  world,  the  English-speaking 
world,  and  the  Germanic  world.  This  grouping,  with 
its  vague  allusion  to  philological  divisions,  does  not 
affect  my  conclusions  in  the  least,  and  is  only  adopted 
for  the  purpose  of  making  a  clear  and  orderly  present- 
ment of  my  material.  It  need,  therefore,  cause  no 
surprise  if  I  do  not  adhere  rigidly  to  it,  or  if  the 
ethnographer  decline  to  sanction  it. 


T 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  LATIN   WORLD— FRANCE 

HE    distinction,    if  not   antithesis,    of    Latin 
and  Teuton  is  a  familiar  one  to  the  student 

-*-  of  religious  development  in  Europe,  but  I 
employ  it  with  a  warning  to  the  reader  that  he  must 
attach  no  psychic  significance  to  it.  I  put  Italy, 
France,  Spain  and  Spanish  America  together 
because  they  are  the  lands  one  thinks  of  above  all 
as  "Catholic  countries,"  and  have  some  bond  of 
language.  Such  a  bond,  however,  is  often  found  to 
indicate  an  enforced  and  external  unity,  lightly  link- 
ing- races  of  the  most  diverse  character.  The  Romans 
engrafted  their  culture  on  very  different  stocks  in 
Italy,  Gaul  and  the  Iberian  peninsula,  and  the  later 
immigrations  of  barbarians  increased  the  distinctness 
of  the  three  races  that  we  sometimes  unite  with  such 
facility. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  this  inquiry,  however, 
the  grouping  is  convenient  and  natural.  The  re- 
ligious history  of  Europe  has  somehow  accentuated 
the  distinction  between  Latin  and  non- Latin  peoples. 
Poland  and  Ireland  apart  (for  political  reasons),  the 
civilised  world  of  the  sixteenth  century  fell  into  two 
fairly  clean  halves  after  the  earthquake  shock  of  the 
Reformation.  One  almost  sees  the  old  frontier  of  the 
early  Roman  Empire  standing  out  once  more.  The 
appeals  and  menaces  of  the  Reformers  have  little 
power  beyond  that  frontier  to  shake  the  allegiance  to 
the  old  capital  of  the  Western  Empire  ;  while  to  the 
north  of  it  the  land  is  easily  fired  with  rebellion  against 


12     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

the  enervated  Roman  court.  Here  and  there  pro- 
vinces wavered,  but  the  counter- Reformation  quickly 
came  to  strengthen  the  instinctive  feeling  of  loyalty 
to  Rome,  the  more  natural  master,  and  the  Latin 
peoples  became  the  Catholic  Church  of  modern 
Europe. 

For  three  centuries  the  maps  of  the  Vatican  have 
coloured  France,  Italy  and  Spain  with  the  blue  of  in- 
corruptible fidelity.  From  them  the  missionary  propa- 
ganda could  be  energeticallypushed  beyond  the  frontier. 
There  is,  perhaps,  no  one  feature  that  more  impresses 
the  student  with  the  power  of  the  Roman  organ- 
isation than  this  never-wavering  effort,  through  ten 
generations,  to  recover  the  "  lost  provinces."  Millions 
of  lives  and  incalculable  devotion  have  been  expended 
in  the  struggle.  But  Rome's  attitude  in  the  meantime 
toward  the  faithful  Latin  races  is  less  edifying.  In 
Spain,  behind  the  shelter  of  the  Pyrenees,  secure 
in  the  general  illiteracy  of  the  people,  the  Church  of 
Rome  has  retained  to  our  own  day  the  open  sale  of 
indulgences  that  inflamed  the  moral  sense  of  northern 
Europe  four  centuries  ago.  In  Italy  the  Vatican  has 
smiled  indulgently  on  the  licence  of  priests  and  people, 
fostered  a  most  injurious  system  of  mendicancy  and 
almsgiving,  and  kept  the  mass  of  the  people  in  a  state 
of  dense  ignorance.  In  France,  until  the  Revolution, 
the  higher  clergy  purchased  the  favour  of  the  power- 
ful by  ignoring,  or  generously  sharing,  their  scepticism, 
their  licence,  and  their  feudal  exactions,  and  enjoined 
patience  and  ignorance  on  the  mass  of  the  people. 

A  day  will  come  when  historians  will  wonder  how 
the  Vatican  ever  acquired  a  reputation  for  statesman- 
ship. In  the  small,  momentary  ruses  of  diplomacy 
it  has  usually  been  able  to  command  the  services  of 
skilful  men,  but  its  whole  management  of  the  Latin 
races  has  been  devoid  of  any  large  statesmanship.      In 


FRANCE  13 

spite  of  its  imposing  profession  of  a  view  that  ranges 
over  eternal  things,  it  has  lived  from  decade  to  decade 
like  an  Oriental,  and  has  singularly  failed  in  prevision. 
Its  belief  for  instance  that  the  great  Aufkldrung  of 
the  eighteenth  century  was  but  a  passing  gleam,  and 
that  it  would  never  dawn  on  the  mass  of  the  people  in 
Italy  and  Spain,  shows  neither  inspiration  nor  human 
sagacity.  At  all  events,  few  other  rulers  could  have 
any  doubt  about  it  to-day,  yet  the  Vatican  still  acts 
on  the  belief  of  Gregory  XIII.  The  Pope  of  the 
twentieth  century  rebukes  intellectual  advance  with 
peevish  references  to  Antichrist,  and  meets  the  social 
revolt  of  the  workers  with  the  old  maxims  of  resigna- 
tion to  the  poor  and  philanthropy  to  the  rich. 

It  is  hardly  surprising  to  find  that  the  reaction  is 
proceeding  rapidly.  France  is  more  effectively  lost 
than  Germany  was  in  the  sixteenth  century.  In  Italy 
rebellion  is  spreading  along  a  line  that,  to  the  thought- 
ful observer,  threatens  to  go  far ;  it  is  following  in  the 
wake  of  popular  education.  In  Spain  the  more  alert 
and  better-educated  provinces  are  seething  with  anti- 
clericalism,  and  the  movement  spreads  in  proportion 
as  schools  are  opened  or  improved.  The  circumstance 
is  not  only  in  itself  a  grave  indictment  of  the  Roman 
system,  but,  showing  as  it  does  an  intellectual  rather 
than  an  emotional  revolt,  it  gives  more  promise  of 
permanence.  Jesuit  intrigues  and  rhetorical  appeals 
are  useless  in  face  of  such  a  movement.  It  is  already 
plain  that  the  energy  of  the  reaction  is  in  proportion 
to  the  length  of  time  during  which  the  Church  held 
the  people  with  the  narcotics  of  ignorance  and  social 
apathy. 

"Catholic  countries"  are  disappearing  from  the 
map  of  the  world.  That  is  the  issue  of  the  next  four 
chapters. 

The  first  and  most  resolute  of  the  Latin  races  to 


14.  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

cast  off  its  allegiance  to  Rome  was  France.     Natural 
as  the  rupture  seems  to  us  who  look  back  on  the 
long  preparation  for  it— on  the  disintegrating  action 
of  the  encyclopaedists,  the  dynamite  of  the  Jacobins, 
the  politic  reconstruction  of  Napoleon,  and  the  folly 
of  Louis  XVIII.  and  Charles   X.— it  was  little  ex- 
pected   in    France    half-a-century    ago.       Wayward 
and   petulant  as  she  had   always  been,   the   "eldest 
daughter  of  the  Church  "  seemed  to  have  returned  to 
a  docile  temper.     French  troops  guarded  Rome  against 
the  faithless  Italians.     French  missionaries  were  the 
glory  and  the  hope  of  the  Propaganda.     French  offer- 
ings filled  most  of  the  caisse  at  the  Vatican.     French 
bishops   carried    the    doctrine    of    papal    infallibility. 
France  seemed  more  likely  to  remain    Roman  than 
Italy.     Yet  in  the  course  of  a  single  generation  the 
Church   of   France  has  fallen.     "It  is  disappearing 
day  by  day,"  says  a  French  bishop.     "We  are  re- 
duced to  an  insignificant  minority,"  says  a  prominent 
abbe. 

How  this  dramatic  fall  has  come  about,  and  how 
far  it  is  a  real,  and  not  an  apparent,  transfer  of 
allegiance,  is  the  first  point  of  inquiry.  No  one, 
I  think,  questions  the  shrinkage  of  the  French 
Church.1 

Its  complete  political  impotence  is  too  obvious 
to  admit  a  doubt  of  its  decay.  But  it  is  important 
to  make  clear  what  were  the  proportions  regained  by 
the  Church  under  Napoleon  III.,  and  to  what  actual 
proportions  it  has  shrunk  in  our  time. 

Some  of  the  most  recent  authorities  that  one  would 

1  The  Catholic  Month  (March  1908,  p.  230)  says:  "It  is  absurd 
to  imagine  that  the  present  Government  in  France  has  to  deal  with 
a  majority,  or  even  a  well-organised  and  substantial  minority,  of 
practical  Catholics.  The  bulk  of  the  people  simply  do  not  care 
about  religion." 


FRANCE  15 

be  disposed  to  consult  on  the  condition  of  Catholicism 
in  France  assign,  in  the  conventional  way,  36,000,000 
out  of  the  38,000,000  (now  39,250,000)  inhabitants 
of  the  country  to  the  Vatican.  Thus  Dr  Jurashek,  in 
one  of  the  finest  statistical  works  of  recent  years 
("Die  Staaten  Europas"),  and  the  last  edition  of  the 
Encyclopedia  Britannica  (which  makes  additional 
confusion  by  describing  the  remaining  2,000,000  as 
Protestants,  whereas  the  Protestants  number  only 
700,000).  How  grave  authorities  come  to  endorse 
such  ludicrous  statements  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of 
"religious  statistics."  So  long  as  thirty  years  ago, 
at  the  last  religious  census,  one-sixth  of  the  population 
of  France  refused  to  describe  themselves  as  Catholics, 
and  the  increasing  weakness  of  the  Catholics  at  every 
election  since  that  time  makes  it  obvious  that  the 
number  of  seceders  has  enormously  increased. 

The  serious  student  of  French  history  is  quite 
prepared  to  hear  of  the  decay  of  Romanism  in  the 
country.  In  spite  of  a  remarkable  series  of  changes 
in  its  fortunes,  as  it  rose  or  fell  on  the  great  waves 
of  French  political  life,  the  Church  has  steadily 
declined,  since  the  days  of  Voltaire.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  say  how  low  it  really  fell  during  the  great 
Revolution.  The  revolt  was  so  predominantly  social, 
and  the  conduct  of  the  higher  clergy  and  the  monks 
had  been  so  flagrantly  anti-social,  that  millions  might 
show  a  bitter  anticlericalism,  yet  retain  their  faith. 
Taine  affirms  that  even  in  the  sombre  days  of  1793 
the  bulk  of  the  workers  of  Paris  were  Roman  Catholics. 
We  need  not  linger  over  the  point.  Whatever  the 
loss  may  have  been,  Napoleon's  reinstatement  of  the 
Church  and  rich  endowment  of  the  clergy  made  France 
a  Catholic  country  once  more.  The  ignorant  masses 
returned  to  their  cure's,  and  the  follower  of  Voltaire  or 
Diderot  found  a  less  congenial  world   than  he  had 


K>  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

done  under  Louis  XVI.  The  restoration  of  the 
Bourbons  completed  the  recovery  of  the  Church. 
Free  thought  had  caused  the  Revolution,  men  said, 
and  it  must  be  rigorously  suppressed.  The  dainty 
noble  hastened  to  lock  it  up  in  his  heart,  and  to  join 
with  the  clergy  in  a  fierce  and  penetrating  inquisition. 
The  Voltairean  has  not,  as  a  rule,  the  stuff  of  martyrs 
in  him,  and  he  almost  ceased  to  propagate  his  opinions. 
He  did  indeed  nurse,  in  secret,  an  angrier  flame  of 
revolt  than  ever,  as  he  shrank  under  the  brutalities  of 
the  "white  terror"  ;  but  the  prevailing  tone  was  such 
at  Paris,  so  late  as  1838,  that  Talleyrand  and  others 
had  to  submit  to  the  rites  of  the  Church  in  order  to 
secure  decorous  funerals. 

In  1830  we  find  Lamennais  claiming  that  there  are 
25,000,000  Catholics  in  France.  Probably  the  figure 
is  exaggerated,  as  the  Church  was  then  entering  upon 
one  of  its  recessionary  periods.  Fifteen  years  of  folly 
and  abuse  of  power  had  ended  in  the  July  Revolution, 
which  naturally  initiated  a  fresh  outburst  of  anticleri- 
calism.  But  the  Church  was  saved,  largely  in  despite 
of  itself  and  of  the  Vatican,  by  the  brilliant  group  of 
writers  who  waged  in  its  service,  under  the  reign  of 
Louis  Philippe,  one  of  the  finest  and  most  successful 
crusades  it  has  ever  witnessed.  Veuillot  says  that  to 
see  a  young  man  enter  a  church  at  Paris  in  the  thirties 
made  much  the  same  impression  as  the  entrance  of  a 
Mohammedan  would  have  done.  By  the  forties  the 
tide  had  turned.  "Are  we  assisting  at  the  funeral  of 
a  great  cult?"  an  official  had  asked  in  1830.  Ten 
years  later  the  same  official  observed  that  Catholicism 
seemed  to  be  entering  upon  a  period  of  prosperity 
equal  to  that  it  enjoyed  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  struggle  between  the  Voltairean  and  the  preacher 
was  essentially  one  of  rhetoric,  and  the  preacher  won. 
In  1843  the  clericals  had  "only  one  real  friend  in  the 


FRANCE  17 

Chambre"1;  after  the  elections  of  1846  they  had 
146,  and  they  were  equally  successful  in  1848. 
Napoleon's  rival  in  1849  was  making  a  great  effort 
to  secure  the  support  of  the  clericals,  and  the  ex- 
Carbonaro  was  forced  to  favour  them.  They  con- 
tinued to  make  progress  throughout  the  Second 
Empire,  though  Napoleon's  Italian  policy  injured 
them.  While  they  complained  that  he  let  the  Pied- 
montese  overrun  Italy,  his  defence  of  Rome  gave 
an  impetus  to  anticlericalism. 

The  Revolution  of  1870  offered  only  a  momentary 
check  to  the  advance  of  the  Church,  for  the  ghastly 
struggle  of  1 87 1  now  prompted  many  Liberals  to 
regard  it  as  an  ally  in  the  repression  of  Jacobinism. 
Following  the  example  of  Thiers,  says  Anatole  France, 
the  younger  bourgeois  were  for  pacific  co-operation 
with  the  clergy  ;  though  the  revolt  was  now  spreading 
rapidly  amongst  the  workers  and  the  peasantry.  We 
shall  have  frequent  occasion  to  deplore  the  extra- 
ordinary errors  of  statesmanship  that  mark  the  history 
of  Rome  in  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
but  few  have  been  more  fatal  to  it  than  the  great 
blunder  of  its  attitude  towards  the  third  Republic. 
At  that  time  (Mr  Bodley  rightly  observes  in  his 
"  Church  in  France  ")  the  Church  was  in  a  much  better 
position  than  it  had  been  for  many  decades ;  and  the 
middle-class  Liberals  were  prepared  to  act  with  it, 
in  view  of  the  rising  menace  of  the  proletariate.  The 
Chambre  formed  after  the  elections  of  1871  was  the 
most  Catholic  that  France  ever  had  in  the  nineteenth 
century.  More  than  500  deputies  sat  on  the  Right, 
and  only  about  half  that  number  on  the  Left.     At  the 

1 "  L'Eglise  de  France  et  L'Etat,"  by  the  Abbe  Bourgain.  I  follow 
this  zealous  Catholic  writer  almost  entirely  from  1830  to  1880,  so 
that  the  reader  may  not  suspect  me  of  exaggerating  the  Church's 
recovery  in  order  to  exaggerate  its  present  fate. 

B 


18     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

census  of  1871  only  85,022  of  the  population  described 
themselves  as  of  no  religion,  and  580,750  as  Pro- 
testants. No  doubt,  such  figures  must  be  regarded 
with  great  discretion.  We  shall  have  frequent 
occasion  to  distrust  or  reject  census  declarations  of 
relieion.  But  the  whole  of  the  available  indications 
point  to  the  preponderance  of  Catholicism  in  the 
country.  Privileges  were  accorded  to  the  Vatican 
that  had  been  withheld  in  the  reign  of  the  fanatical 
Charles  X.  The  papal  nuncio  was  consulted  in  the 
nomination  of  bishops,  and  the  Vatican  appointed 
them  almost  as  it  pleased.  Mgr.  Dupanloup  was  all- 
powerful  at  Paris.  The  Chambre  voted  prayers  to  be 
said  in  all  the  churches  in  France,  and  declared  the 
project  of  building  a  church  on  Montmartre  to  be  "of 
public  utility."  An  extraordinary  series  of  measures 
favouring  the  clergy  was  passed  between    1871  and 

1875.  Bishops  were  put  on  the  Conseil  Superieur 
de  l'instruction  publique,  and  priests  on  the  commit- 
tees of  public  assistance.  Sabatier  cannot  be  far  from 
the  truth  when  he  says  that  the  Catholics  numbered 
30,000,000  out  of  36,000,000  at  that  time.     Even  in 

1876,  the  last  year  when  the  religious  qualification 
was  inserted  in  the  census  paper,  29,000,000  described 
themselves  as  Roman  Catholics,  and  in  the  circum- 
stances the  figures  have  a  weight  that  no  one  attaches 
to  such  declarations  in  modern  Spain  or  Italy  for 
instance. 

The  country  was  overwhelmingly  Catholic  in  the 
early  seventies.  The  statistics  of  the  religious  con- 
gregations will,  perhaps,  serve  best  to  illustrate  this. 
I  will  deal  more  fully  with  these  bodies  presently, 
but  may  here  note  their  growth  as  a  symptom  of  the 
strength  of  Catholicism  in  the  sixties  and  seventies. 
Many  of  these  monastic  and  semi-monastic  bodies  were 
permanently  illegal  in   France  throughout  the  nine- 


FRANCE  19 

teenth  century.  Jesuits,  of  course,  crept  easily  enough 
through  the  bars  of  Napoleon's  Concordat.  In  the 
reign  of  Charles  X.  a  zealous,  astute,  intriguing  body 
spread  throughout  the  kingdom  under  the  name  of 
the  "  Peccaminaristes."  Every  child  knew  that  they 
were  the  followers  of  St  Ignatius.  But  the  other  un- 
authorised bodies  had  been  less  bold.  They  had  only 
14,000  members  in  France  in  1877.  By  the  end  of 
the  century  they  had  increased  to  75,000,  besides 
"authorised"  monks  and  nuns.  In  the  fifties  their 
property  was  valued  at  50,000,000  francs:  by  1880 
the  value  had  grown — on  a  moderate  estimate — to 
700,000,000  francs.  This  does  not  mean  that 
Catholicism  increased  after  1870,  but  it  does  show 
the  solidity  and  generality  of  the  religious  sentiment 
on  which  they  throve. 

However,  I  do  not  know  of  any  writer  who  would 
challenge   the  statement  that  in  the  early  seventies 
the   Catholics   numbered  at  least    30,000,000   out  of 
36,000,000.     We   have   thus    one   of    the    terms    of 
comparison.     The  next  point  is  to  show  that  to-day 
they  are  certainly  not  more    than    6,000,000   out   of 
39,000,000.     To  establish  this  I  rely  almost  entirely 
upon  the  words  of  the  French  clergy  themselves — 
which  alone  would  suffice — or  of  writers  who  regard 
this   appalling  loss  with  concern,  and  are  not   likely 
to   exaggerate    it.      Laborious   proof  may  not    seem 
necessary  to  some,  as  the  expulsion  of  the  religious 
congregations  and  the  disestablishment  of  the  Church 
are  so  fresh    in    the    memory.     A    vast    change   has 
obviously  taken  place  from  the  days  when  (in  1871) 
the  deputies  of  the  Right  were  twice  as  numerous  as 
those  of  the  Left,  and  legislated  freely  for  the  bishops. 
To-day,    though    allying    themselves    with    political 
groups  (Antisemites,  Monarchists,  Nationalists,  etc.), 
that  are  often  not  peculiarly  Catholic,  the  faithful  in 


20     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

France  have  been  utterly  unable  to  arrest  the  most 
deadly  blow  that  has  been  aimed  at  their  Church  since 
1790.  At  a  time  when  every  man  with  a  spark  of 
real  faith  in  him  was  urged  to  vote  against  the  ruling 
power,  when  the  strangest  of  comrades  were  welcomed 
if  they  would  but  help  to  overthrow  Combism,  we 
must  assume  that  the  whole  force  of  Catholicism  was 
mustered ;  and  there  was  never  a  moment's  doubt  as 
to  the  issue.  They  only  proved  themselves  to  be  a 
negligible  minority  of  the  electorate.  The  nation 
was  shown  to  be  overwhelmingly  non-Catholic.  With 
a  generosity  that  contrasts  finely  with  the  use  that 
Catholics  had  made  of  power  whenever  they  recovered 
it,  the  new  France  calmly  broke  the  links  that  had 
bound  it  to  Rome  for  the  greater  part  of  its  history. 
So  tiny  were  the  flamelets  of  rebellion  that  followed 
this,  one  of  the  heaviest  blows  inflicted  on  Rome  since 
the  Reformation,  that  the  French  authorities  genially 
sent  their  pompiers  to  extinguish  them. 

But  the  Church  in  France  had  meddled  with  political 
matters,  and  a  captious  apologist  might  suggest  that 
French  Catholics  voted  according  to  their  civic  rather 
than  their  religious  sense,  in  spite  of  ecclesiastical 
orders  and  the  dire  peril  of  their  faith.  In  any  case,  it 
will  be  interesting  to  run  over  the  many  positive  in- 
dications that  are  found  of  the  extraordinary  weakness  to 
which  the  Church  has  been  reduced.  One  cannot  read 
without  a  movement  of  pathos  as  well  as  amusement 
the  successive  declarations  of  the  French  clergy  during 
the  last  three  decades.  During  the  eighties  they  are 
full  of  hope  and  energy.  Their  attempts  to  foist 
a  foolish  "  Henri  V."  on  the  country,  or  to  embroil 
France  with  Italy  over  the  Pope's  temporal  power, 
have  led  to  a  strong  anticlerical  movement,  and 
Gambetta's  "Voila  l'ennemi!"  has  sonorous  echoes. 
The  proclerical  majority  in  the  Chambre  sinks  to  a 


FRANCE  21 

minority  in  18S1.  In  ten  years  their  parliamentary 
friends  have  sunk  from  500  to  80.  But  they  are  still 
buoyant,  and  fight  with  redoubled  energy.  Secular 
education,  civil  marriage,  divorce  and  other  "products 
of  the  pit"  are  passed  in  the  Chambre.  In  1885 
(when  the  elections  have  a  complication  of  Chinese 
trouble)  the  Catholics  return  204  members  to  their 
opponents'  380,  and  the  anticlerical  measures  continue. 
In  1889  they  blunder  again — into  the  adoption  of 
Boulanger — and  the  Right  rises  to  211  members 
(against  364).  In  three  months  Boulanger  is  flying 
across  the  frontier,  and  they  sink  down  the  last  slope. 
In  1893  they  return  thirty-five  rallies  and  fifty-eight 
Conservatives.  There  is  "a  violent  crisis,"  the  Abbe 
de  Broglie  says  ;  and  another  clerical  writer,  Dr  Iilie 
Meric,  admits  that  "  the  people  have  for  the  moment 
lost  in  some  districts  the  serene  docility  of  faith."  In 
1892  Leo  XIII.  had  tardily  advised  them  to  support 
the  Republic — "There  is  the  only  corpse  the  Church 
is  wedded  to,"  he  is  reported  to  have  said,  pointing  to 
the  crucifix — and  this  is  all  they  gain.  They  fight  on 
and  blunder  on — into  the  Dreyfus  affair  (1897) — and 
a  chill  of  despair  comes  over  Catholic  writers,  as  the 
century  draws  to  a  close,  and  Waldeck- Rousseau 
opens  the  last  act. 

"  After  thirty  years,"  says  the  Abbe  Naudet  ("  Pour- 
quoi  les  Catholiques  ont  perdu  la  bataille "),  "the 
Catholics  of  France  have  lost  everything  but  their 
money."  Two  years  later  they  will  complain  that 
they  have  lost  that.  "  The  faith  of  Christian  France 
is  disappearing  day  by  day,"  says  Mgr.  Turinaz 
("  Les  perils  de  la  Foi  ").  The  clergy  have  fought  the 
great  battle  since  1870  with  supreme  devotion.  They 
have  contested  every  inch  of  ground  in  the  secularisa- 
tion of  the  Republic.  They  have  often,  in  spite  of 
their  better  judgment,   obeyed  implicitly  every  order 


22     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

from  the  Vatican.  And  they  have  suffered  the  most 
signal  defeat  that  was  ever  inflicted  on  a  French 
army. 

That  their  political  fortunes  faithfully  reflect  the 
rapid  decay  of  their  Church  will  be  quite  apparent 
from  the  authorities  I  will  now  quote,  which  put  the 
position  of  the  French  Church  beyond  cavil.  In  the 
year  1894  Taine  made  the  first  conscientious  attempt 
to  estimate  the  decay  of  Catholicism  in  France.  A 
more  admirable  authority  on  the  subject  could  hardly 
be  discovered  than  this  profound  social  student,  the 
historian  of  France  in  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
Positivist  who  regarded  the  decay  of  faith  with  genuine 
concern.1  He  collected,  as  far  as  possible  from  Catholic 
sources,  a  large  number  of  statistics  and  facts  bearing 
on  the  condition  of  Catholicism.  He  was  compelled 
to  come  to  the  conclusion — he  came  to  it  with  great 
regret — that  there  were  only  between  7,000,000  and 
8,000,000  Catholics  left  in  France,  and  that,  of  the 
adult  Catholics,  there  were  four  women  to  one  man. 
"The  workman,"  he  said,  "has  shaken  off  the  obliga- 
tions of  the  Church,  and  the  peasant  is  shaking  them 

off"  (p.  147)- 

To  follow  Taine's  researches  in  detail — and  indeed 
all  that  follow  in  this  essay — one  must  remember  that 
the  tests  of  Catholicism  are  more  easily  applied  than 
the  tests  of  membership  of  a  Protestant  Church.  The 
Protestant  may  be  absent  from  service  three  Sundays 
out  of  four,  and  from  communion  for  many  years, 
without  our  needing  to  refuse  him  membership  of  his 
Church.     With  the  Catholic  it  is  entirely  different. 

To  omit  mass  on  one  Sunday,  without  grave  excuse, 

1  The  results  of  his  investigation  are  given  in  his  "  Origines  de  la 
France  contemporaine,"  vol.  vi.  Throughout  the  present  work  all 
quotations  from  books  of  which  the  title  is  foreign  have  been 
translated  directly  and  literally  by  myself. 


FRANCE  23 

or  communion  at  one  Eastertide,  is  a  mortal  sin, 
entailing  eternal  damnation.  To  this  terrible  dogma 
the  Church  is  absolutely  pledged.  No  man  who  really 
subscribes  to  the  teaching  of  Catholicism  can  habitu- 
ally neglect  the  Sunday  mass,  or  the  Easter  com- 
munion ;  or,  at  least,  only  a  very  vicious  minority  can 
do  so.  The  number  of  Catholics  who  attend  mass 
on  Sunday  (with  a  proportional  allowance  for  very 
young  children  and  the  ailing)  is  the  real  number  of 
Catholics  in  any  town  or  country  ;  and  it  is  the  same 
with  the  "Easter  duty" — the  communion  that  must 
be  received  about  Easter.  Except  in  certain  parts  of 
Catholic  countries,  where  the  clergy  are  too  timid  to 
insist  on  the  law,  and  connive  at  wholesale  absten- 
tion from  mass,  those  who  call  themselves  Catholic 
and  evade  these  duties  are  few  in  number  and  are 
not  entitled  to  the  name.  This  must  be  kept  clearly 
in  mind  throughout  our  inquiry. 

As  far  as  Paris  was  concerned,  Taine  was  assured  by 
a  Catholic  prelate  that  only  100,000  of  the  2,000,000 
inhabitants  make  their  Pdques,  or  receive  the  Sacra- 
ment at  Easter ;  and  of  these  four  out  of  every  five 
were  women.  In  other  words,  of  the  whole  population 
of  Paris  over  ten  years  of  age  (the  age  when  the 
practice  of  communicating  usually  begins)  only  one 
female  in  twelve,  and  one  male  in  fifty,  observed  this 
decisive  command  of  the  Church.  No  doubt,  a  larger 
number  attended  mass  on  Sundays,  though  Mgr. 
Turinaz  ("  Perils  de  la  Foi ")  found  the  number  extra- 
ordinarily low  ;  and  no  doubt  many  were  still  vaguely 
Catholic,  yet  did  not  even  attend  mass;  but  these 
figures  of  the  Easter  communion  are  generally  re- 
garded by  the  clergy  as  most  conclusive.  Paris,  like 
most  large  Catholic  cities,  has  long  borne  its  religion 
lightly,  and  allowed  momentary  political  gusts  to  chill 
it,  to  say  nothing  of  other  disturbances.     Some  years 


24  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

ago  I  attended  high  mass  at  the  Madeleine,  and  saw 
a  Frenchman  leave  the  church  (and  presumably  forfeit 
mass,  and  incur  damnation)  because  an  extra  sou  was 
demanded  of  him  for  the  use  of  a  chair  in  the  nave. 
But  when  all  allowance  for  temperament  and  tradition 
has  been  made,  when  the  figures  have  been  propor- 
tionately augmented  by  the  sick  and  the  young,  it 
remains  true  that  barely  a  tenth  of  the  Parisians  were 
Catholic  in  1894.  Three-fourths  of  its  children  were 
still  baptised,  and  three-fourths  of  its  marriages  and 
burials  were  still  of  a  religious  nature ;  but  such  cere- 
monies have  too  festive  and  social  a  character  to 
outweigh  the  grave  tests  of  the  Sunday  mass  and 
Easter  communion.  And  the  proportion  shrinks 
every  decade.  For  the  rest  of  France,  Taine  found 
that  only  one  woman  in  four  and  one  man  in  twelve 
gave  practical  indication  of  belonging  to  the  Church  of 
Rome.  "  In  many  villages  the  high  mass  on  Sundays 
is  attended  only  by  women,  and  those  often  few  in 
number,  one  or  two  troops  of  children,  and  a  few  old 
men,"  he  says.  It  was  not  merely  the  workers  of  the 
large  towns  who  had  left  the  Church.  At  the  large 
village  of  Bourron  only  94  out  of  1200  inhabitants 
made  the  Easter  communion  ;  in  1789  the  proportion 
of  communicants  in  that  village  had  been  returned  as 
300  out  of  600.  In  fine,  Taine's  inquiries  amongst  his 
Catholic  friends  yielded  the  general  result  that,  of 
the  adult  population  (or,  rather,  the  population  over 
the  age  often)  of  France  about  5,250,000  fulfilled  the 
duty  which  the  Church  imposes  as  a  solemn  condition 
of  membership.  About  one-sixth  of  the  population  of 
France  being  under  ten,  we  may  add  1,000,000  or 
slightly  more  children,  and  we  have  the  total  number 
of  real  Catholics  in   1894  as  about  7,000,000. 

I  have  taken  next  the  clerical  criticisms  of  Taine 
that   I   could  discover,   and  other  clerical   pronounce- 


FRANCE  25 

ments  on  the  subject.  The  Abbe"  de  Broglie  set  out 
to  oppose  him,  but  he  brought  no  different  statistics. 
He  merely  objects  that  the  figures  "seem  to  be 
exaggerated,"  and  that  he  will  not  accept  them.  But 
he  incidentally  confesses  that  there  is  a  "violent 
crisis,"  and  a  "real  danger."  In  many  places  in  the 
provinces  there  are  no  more  pratiquants  than  at  Paris, 
he  says,  and  the  women  are  beginning  to  desert  the 
Church.  Amongst  the  workers  there  is  a  nucleus  of 
"Catholic  Socialists,"  which  is  "small  in  number  but 
solid " ;  the  rest  of  the  workers  have  "  passed  from 
indifference  to  hostility  "  ;  even  in  the  rural  districts 
the  number  of  "fervent  Catholics"  is  small.  He 
reconciles  himself  to  the  situation  on  the  ground  that 
the  efforts  of  their  opponents  have  drawn  off  only  the 
large  body  of  merely  conventional  Catholics  and  left 
the  "solid  core."  We  shall  see  presently  something 
of  the  solidity  of  the  core. 

Dr  £lie  Meric  ("  Le  clerge"  et  les  temps  nouveaux  ") 
wrote  before  Taine,  in  1892,  with  the  obvious  aim  of 
soothing  the  Catholic  laity  under  the  stress  of  their 
situation.  There  is  no  actual  decadence  in  France, 
he  says,  but  "owing  to  the  frantic  efforts  of  the 
sophists  the  people  have  lost  for  a  moment,  in  certain 
districts,  the  serene  docility  of  faith"  (p.  52).  He 
offers  consolatory  thoughts  to  the  faithful.  The  first 
is  that,  whereas  the  religious  houses  in  France  in  the 
eighteenth  century  were — he  quotes  the  words  of 
a  French  bishop  to  the  king  (p.  509) — "the  resort  of 
infamous  brothel-frequenters,"  they  have  now,  in  1892, 
160,000  strict  inmates  of  convents  and  monasteries  in 
the  country.  That  consolation  did  not  long  survive. 
His  second  point  is  that  the  Church  has  gained  in 
other  lands  far  more  than  it  has  lost  in  France.  This 
is  the  favourite  retreat  of  the  French  Catholic  writer. 
£.  de  Vogue,  G.  Fonsegrive  and  Pere  Sertillanges 


26     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

make  the  same  point,  while  admitting  the  heavy  loss 
in  France.  Me>ic  says  that  the  Catholic  population 
of  England  has  risen  from  120,000  to  1,700,000  in 
the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century.  We  shall  see 
that  in  England  the  Church  has  really  lost  in  that  time 
about  2,000,000  followers.  Pere  Sertillanges  says 
that  more  than  20,000,000  have  been  added  to  the 
Church  in  America  in  the  nineteenth  century.  We 
shall  see  that  that  is  more  nearly  the  measure  of  its 
loss  there.  These  writers  cleverly  conceal  what  is 
due  to  large  movements  of  population ;  and  then 
describe  their  opponents  as  "sophists." 

A  more  candid  and  more  recent  (1897)  French 
clerical  writer  on  the  subject  is  the  Abbe  Dessaine, 
in  his  "  Le  Clerge  Francois  au  vingtieme  siecle." 
His  chapters  made  their  first  appearance  in  the  Catholic 
periodical  Le  Peuple  Frangais,  and  his  book  is  ap- 
proved by  the  Bishop  of  Laval.  M.  Dessaine  is 
frank.  Taine's  figures,  he  says,  were  too  flattering 
to  the  Church  ;  or  at  least  its  condition  is  worse  in 
1897.  "Ecclesiastical  vocations  diminish  from  year 
to  year  in  frightful  proportions,  and  nearly  all  the 
bishops  raise  a  cry  of  alarm  "  (p.  7).  There  have 
been  heroic  efforts  made  to  save  France,  but  "the 
results  are  in  heartrending  disproportion  to  the  efforts 
made"  (p.  16).  If  by  Catholics  one  means  those  who 
practise  the  Catholic  religion  they  are  in  "an  almost 
insignificant  minority  "  {tine  minorite"  presque  infime, 
p.  17).  The  Church  has  been  sinking  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century.  "  The  total  of  baptised  Frenchmen 
who  are  absolute  strangers  to  any  practice  of  religion, 
indifferent  to  every  religious  question,  except  when 
there  is  question  of  a  scandal  or  some  other  trouble, 
would  be  stupefying"  (p.  17).  There  has  been  an 
"  incredible  loss  of  faith  "  in  the  provinces  that  were 
once  noted  for  their  religion — provinces  that  are  far 


FRANCE  27 

removed  from  the  centres  of  irreligion  and  are  well 
provided  with  clergy,  such  as  Brittany.  "  The  women 
are  nearly  as  bad  as  the  men."  In  a  "Catholic" 
district  with  2300  inhabitants  he  found  that  only 
200  went  to  church  on  Sundays.  "In  the  large  towns 
the  proportion  is  still  sadder."  He  was  himself  cure 
of  an  urban  parish  with  21,000  inhabitants.  Of  these 
less  than  1200  went  to  mass  on  Sundays.  In  a  town 
that  was  regarded  by  its  clergy  as  "one  of  the  best  in 
France"  he  found  that  not  100  men  entered  the 
chapel  on  Sundays  in  a  parish  of  5000  souls  that  he 
knew  well.  The  very  name  of  priest  "excites  rage 
and  ridicule  everywhere."  Finally,  in  1897,  the 
Catholic  schools  still  stood  side  by  side  with  the 
secular  schools.  But,  while  there  were  2,271,000 
boys  in  the  "godless"  schools  of  the  Republic,  there 
were  only  409,000  boys  in  the  religious  schools. 

And  these  terrible  and  pathetic  confessions  are 
true.  Since  that  time  the  stalwart  Bishop  of  Nantes, 
Mgr.  Turinaz,  has  added  to  the  "cry  of  alarm"  with 
his  little  brochure  "  Les  perils  de  la  Foi."  "  The  faith 
of  Christian  France  is  disappearing  day  by  day  "  is 
his  summary  conclusion.  An  article  by  a  Catholic 
writer  in  La  Revue  (January  1902)  confirms  the 
estimate.  Mr  Bodley  ("The  Church  in  France,"  1906) 
does  not  attempt  to  express  the  numerical  strength  of 
the  Catholics  in  the  country,  but  he  points  to  many 
indications  of  their  weakness.  The  trouble  about 
M.  Loisy,  and  even  about  the  disestablishment  of  the 
Church,  aroused,  he  says,  far  less  interest  in  France 
than  out  of  it.  The  Catholics,  he  insists,  began  the 
third  Republic  in  a  better  position  than  they  had 
had  under  the  second,  but  "identified  themselves  with 
the  most  inept  political  party  that  ever  irretrievably 
wrecked  a  powerful  cause  "  (p.  51).  He  notices  that 
the  province  of  Burgundy  has  for  many  years  returned 


28  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

only  one  Catholic  to  the  Chambre  amongst  its 
twenty-seven  deputies  ;  and  this  one,  M.  Schneider, 
is  regarded  mainly  as  a  large  and  philanthropic 
employer  of  labour. 

So  far  I  have  quoted  only  Catholic  or  pro-Catholic 
writers,  but  there  are  points  of  interest  in  works  by 
the  anticlericals  Yves  Guyot  and  Anatole  France 
that  deserve  consideration.  Guyot,  in  particular, 
whose  "  Bilan  social  et  politique  de  l'Eglise  "  contains 
a  large  amount  of  statistical  information,  has  some 
authoritative  pages  on  the  religious  life  of  Paris.  A 
recent  Catholic  writer,  M.  de  Flaix  ("  La  statistique  des 
religions  a  la  fin  du  XXme  siecle  "),  boldly  describes 
Paris  as  "thegreatest  focus  of  religion  on  the  earth,"  and 
Lucien  Arr£at  ("  Le  sentiment  religieux  en  France") 
informs  his  Catholic  readers  that  so  late  as  1897  they 
were  ninety-eight  per  cent,  of  the  population.  One 
wonders  what  religious  writers  really  hope  to  gain  by 
such  statements.  In  1901  M.  Guyot  made  an  inquiry 
into  the  church  accommodation  of  Paris,  and  a  very 
generous  calculation  of  its  churchgoers.  Paris  had 
then  seventy-one  parish  churches,  and  a  population 
of  2,714,000:  one  church  to  28,225  inhabitants!  The 
eleventh  arrondissement  had  239,149  inhabitants  and 
three  parish  churches,  with  seating  accommodation 
for  3300  collectively.  If  we  allow  twelve  masses  to 
each  church  on  a  Sunday  morning,  and  assume  that, 
on  the  average,  the  churches  are  three-quarters  full,  it 
would  still  be  true  that  only  a  little  more  than  ten  in 
a  hundred  of  the  inhabitants  went  to  church.  In 
point  of  fact  M.  Guyot  found  only  950  (of  whom  only 
eighty-nine  were  adult  males)  assisting  at  high  mass 
in  the  three  churches  together  on  25th  August  1901. 
Allowing  300  for  each  low  mass  (an  exorbitant  allow- 
ance), he  finds  that,  at  the  most,  only  one  in  forty- 
three  of  the  inhabitants  (and  these  are  for  the  vast 


FRANCE  29 

majority  women  and  children)  of  the  eleventh  ar- 
rondissement  at  Paris  is  a  practising  Catholic.1 

As  to  the  provinces,  he  quotes  the  Abbe  Crestey 
("L'esprit  nouveau  "),  saying  that  in  many  parishes  only 
three  attend  mass — the  priest,  the  server  and  the 
sacristan  (p.  33),  "in  half  the  country  parishes,  at 
most,  one  quarter  of  the  peasants  go  to  church 
regularly "  (p.  37),  and  "of  36,000,000  Catholics  we 
must  strike  off  25,000,000,"  and  of  the  remaining 
11,000,000  to  whom  he  would  allow  the  name,  a 
very  large  proportion  do  not  practise  (p.  36). 

Anatole  France  ("  Leglise  et  la  Republique")  gives 
a  few  indications  of  the  state  of  religion  in  the  provinces. 
He  quotes  from  Jules  Delafosse  (a  deputy  of  the 
Right),  a  description  of  a  part  of  Limousin,  where 
neither  men,  women  nor  children  go  to  mass  (p.  104). 
They  are  all  baptised,  and  show  no  hostility  to  the 
Church  ;  but  they  seem  to  listen  with  quaint  placidity 
to  its  command  to  go  to  mass  every  Sunday  under 
pain  of  eternal  damnation.  It  is  not  for  us  to  object 
if  the  Church  numbers  them  amongst  her  children. 
M.  Anatole  France  also  quotes  a  Catholic  journal  Le 
Briard,  which  made  a  careful  inquiry  into  the  subject. 
It  found  that  of  the  216,000  inhabitants  of  La  Brie, 
a  rural  Catholic  province,  there  were  only  50,200 
practising  Catholics. 

A  more  satisfactory  knowledge  of  religious  life  in 
the  provinces  may  be  obtained  from  an  article  by 
Leonce  Hays  in  the  Revue  Catholique  des  Eglises 
(July  1907).  Here  the  life  of  a  whole  department,  and 
by  no  means  one  of  the  more  advanced,  is  minutely 

1  He  notices  the  fact  that  at  Paris  civil  funerals  are  still  only 
twenty-three  (now  twenty-five)  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  This  merely 
reminds  one  of  festive  and  ceremony-loving  Japan,  where  a  man 
is  always  ushered  into  the  world  by  Shinto  priests  and  out  of  it  by 
Buddhists.     We  must  rely  on  the  graver  tests. 


30     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

analysed  by  a  Catholic  writer.  The  diocese  of 
Angouleme,  which  he  studies,  is  coextensive  with  the 
department  of  Charente,  with  a  population  of  351,000. 
So  remote  is  it  from  Parisian  life  that  as  late  as  1898 
five  of  its  six  deputies  were  Bonapartist.  It  has  340 
acting  priests,  but  "celebrating  his  mass  every 
morning  in  a  quite  empty  church,  not  administering 
the  sacraments  sometimes  for  months  at  a  stretch, 
and  finding  only  a  moderate  amount  of  religion  in  the 
small  section  of  his  people  who  do  their  Easter  duty 
and  hear  mass  on  Sundays,  the  priest  of  Charente 
needs  a  great  deal  of  energy  to  maintain  his  activity 
and  his  fervour"  (p.  398).  In  one  parish  of  500  souls 
only  fifteen  to  twenty  go  to  mass  regularly  on  Sunday, 
or  to  communion  at  Easter  ;  many  of  the  others  hear 
mass  occasionally,  and  a  large  number  twice  a  year. 
Most  of  them  have  their  children  baptised,  and  have 
religious  marriages  and  funerals,  but  "  from  mere 
custom."  This  parish  is  "above  the  average,  rather 
than  an  exception,  in  the  diocese."  In  many  parishes 
the  only  males  to  attend  mass  are  "the  sacristan, 
one  or  two  old  men,  and  a  few  children."  Vespers 
are  attended  by  only  four  or  five,  sometimes  fewer, 
persons  in  many  parishes.  Most  of  the  peasants  work 
on  Sunday  morning  (which  is  equally  forbidden  by 
the  Church  under  pain  of  eternal  damnation).  The 
only  district  which  affords  precise  figures  of  Easter 
communions  claims  1290  out  of  9150  inhabitants.  A 
few  districts  are  slightly  better,  but  most  are  much 
worse  than  this.  In  a  parish  of  400  souls  no  one 
made  an  Easter  communion  in  1904.  A  parish  of 
1600  had  thirteen  Easter  communicants,  including 
one  male.1  M.  Hays  concludes  that  only  5  per  cent, 
of  the  males  over  twelve,  and  25  per  cent,  of  the  girls 

1  The  one  man  who  figures  in  so  many  parochial  lists  is,  of  course, 
the  paid  sacristan. 


FRANCE  31 

and  women,  fulfil  this  very  grave  obligation  of  the 
Catholic  Church  in  the  whole  department ;  and  the 
number  decreases  of  late  years.  As  to  those  who  do 
go  to  communion,  "  it  seems  that  their  faith  is  not 
very  ardent."  When  a  curd  was  about  to  administer 
the  sacrament  to  a  dying  paysanne,  he  asked  if  she 
believed  in  the  Real  Presence.  "  Ni  zou  cr£  ni  zou 
decr6"  (I  neither  believe  nor  disbelieve  it),  she 
answered.  The  whole  department,  almost,  is  in  a 
condition  of  blank  religious  indifference,  and  it  is  at 
least  an  average  department  of  France  in  regard  to 
religious  practices.  It  differs  from  most  of  the  other 
departments  only  in  the  fact  that  it  scarcely  shared 
the  Catholic  revival  in  the  middle  of  the  century.  In 
its  actual  proportion  of  practising  Catholics,  and  its 
sorry  exhibition  of  the  character  of  the  few  millions 
that  remain  "faithful,"  it  is  typical.  It  is  a  complete 
error  to  speak  of  a  "  solid  core  "  remaining  after  the 
Church's  losses. 

In  conclusion  I  turn  again  to  a  pro-Catholic  writer 
who  gives  a  general  estimate  of  the  strength  of 
Catholicism  in  France — Paul  Sabatier,  in  his  "  Lettre 
ouverte  a  S.  E.  le  Cardinal  Gibbons"  (1907).  The 
American  prelate  had  used  language  of  great  violence 
in  regard  to  the  "  tyranny  "  of  the  French  Government, 
and  had  trusted  that  the  French  nation  would  rise 
against  it.  Sabatier,  one  of  those  cosmopolitan 
Protestants  who  have  even  affection  for  the  Church 
of  Rome,  and  watch  its  losses  with  regret,  made  a 
rejoinder  that  gently  exposed  the  extraordinary  ignor- 
ance of  the  situation  on  the  part  of  American — and, 
we  may  add,  English — Roman  Catholics.  The  action 
of  the  French  Government  he  described  as  wholly  just 
and  proper  in  substance,  and  humane,  if  not  generous, 
in  form.  And  to  justify  the  reoccupation  of  ecclesi- 
astical property  by  the  Government  (when  the  Pope 


IV2     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

had  forbidden  the  French  Catholics  to  form  the  as- 
sociations to  receive  it  that  they  were  generally  willing 
to  form),  he  wrote  this  interesting  paragraph,  which  I 
translate  literally  : 

"As  long  as  the  Church  was  a  public  service,  it 
was  endowed,  like  all  the  other  public  services  of  the 
country  ;  if,  as  we  are  assured  by  the  men  who  speak 
with  authority  on  this  point,  the  number  of  French 
Catholics  is  now  not  more  than  three  or  four  millions, 
it  is  perfectly  just  that  the  endowments  the  Church 
had  when  she  had  ten  times  that  number  of  followers 
should  return  to  the  State"  (p.  21). 

Here,  from  the  pen  of  a  writer  more  deeply  sympa- 
thetic to  Catholicism  than  any  other  man  who  does 
not  actually  share  it,  a  writer  in  close  touch  with  the 
Catholics  and  of  great  authority  on  religious  questions, 
we  have  a  terrible  statement  of  loss  sustained.  Sabatier 
confirms  my  estimate  that  earlier  in  the  century  the 
Catholics  numbered  30,000,000  at  least ;  he  goes 
far  below  my  estimate  of  their  actual  strength.  He 
attributes  to  them  a  loss  of  27,000,000  souls.  On 
the  most  generous  calculation  possible,  he  cannot 
be  more  than  2,000,000  out.  That  leaves  an  in- 
disputable loss  of  25,000,000  for  the  latter  half  of  the 
century.1 

No  wonder  that,  scarce  as  vocations  are,  the  priests 
are  abandoning  the  Church  for  lay  employment  in 
large  numbers.  In  one  recent  year  (1901)  348  priests 
seceded  from  the  Church,  as  Professor  Frommel  wrote 
in  The  Exa??iiner.     In  October   1907  these  seceding 

1  Through  a  London  clergyman  in  touch  with  the  Parisian  clergy 
I  learn  that  they  claim  there  were  5,000,000  Easter  communions 
in  France  in  1907.  The  number,  no  doubt,  has  been  generously 
rounded.  But,  even  as  it  is,  it  would  mean  a  Catholic  population 
of  only  about  6,000,000.  The  Protestant  bodies  number  about 
500,000  followers.     The  population  is  39,252,267  (in  1906). 


FRANCE  33 

priests  found  themselves  strong  enough  to  establish 
a  monthly  journal,  L'Exode,  "  organe  du  mouvement : 
Hors  de  Rome,"  which  gives  interesting  details  of  the 
disruption  of  the  greatest  body  of  clergy  the  Roman 
Church  ever  possessed. 

In  the  case  of  France,  then,  we  can  make  a  fairly 
precise  determination  of  the  fortunes  of  the  Church 
of  Rome.  Within  half-a-century  it  has  fallen  from  the 
position  of  a  Church  of  30,000,000  in  a  population 
of  36,000,000  to  a  shrunken  body  of  (at  the  most) 
6,000,000  in  a  population  of  39,000,000.  It  is,  of 
course,  a  mere  popular  fallacy  that  the  population  of 
France  is  stationary.  It  has  steadily  though  slowly 
increased,  while  the  number  of  the  faithful  has  rapidly 
decreased.  In  conclusion  we  may  find  it  instructive 
to  glance  at  the  causes  of  the  shrinkage,  and  to  see 
if  the  remaining  body  does  really  constitute  the  "solid 
core  "  that  it  is  represented  to  do. 

In  view  of  the  fluctuations  of  religious  life  in  France 
it  is  especially  desirable  to  notice  the  causes  of  the 
present  decay.  Is  France  once  more  merely  lying  in 
the  valley  between  two  great  waves  of  religious  suc- 
cess? Is  the  fourth  revolution  to  be  as  temporary  in 
effect  as  the  first  three  ?  No ;  the  careful  reader  of 
French  history  will  perceive  much  surer  indications  of 
permanence  in  the  present  attitude  of  France  toward 
the  Roman  Church.  It  is  no  longer  the  expression  of 
a  mere  superficial  Voltaireanism  or  a  passing  political 
resentment.  The  revolution  has  been  singularly  free 
from  what  foreigners  are  pleased  to  regard  as  French 
levity  of  character  or  explosiveness  of  sentiment.  It 
has  been  a  cold,  judicious,  slow  and  temperate  dis- 
missal of  the  Church  from  the  life  of  the  majority  of 
the  nation.  Even  those  social  students,  like  Bodley 
or  Sabatier,  who  regard  that  dismissal  with  concern, 
describe  it  as  just  and  inevitable.  In  mind  and  heart 
e 


34     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

the  nation  has  definitely  turned  away  from  Rome  ; 
and  the  fault  is  largely  Rome's. 

In  all  the  countries  that  we  are  going  to  consider 
the  chief  and  general  cause  of  the  decay  of  Romanism 
is  the  spread  of  culture.  It  is  in  the  darker  provinces 
of  the  world  that  loyalty  to  the  Vatican  remains 
strongest,  in  the  completely  illiterate  districts  of  Spain 
and  southern  Italy,  in  the  south  and  west  of  Ireland, 
the  valleys  of  Bavaria,  the  remoter  tracts  of  Canada, 
in  South  America,  and  so  on.  The  moment  these 
provinces  are  lit  with  some  real  dawn  of  culture — the 
moment,  not  only  what  is  called  elementary  education, 
but  real  freedom  to  read,  impulse  to  read,  and  modern 
books  to  read,  are  granted — the  loyalty  begins  to 
wane.  It  is  found  that  the  familiar  dogmas  lie  outside 
the  world  of  serious  intellectual  occupation :  that  you 
can  count  on  your  fingers  the  men  of  great  distinction 
in  history,  science  or  philosophy  who  even  nominally 
respect  Catholic  doctrines  like  transubstantiation  or 
infallibility.  The  people  are  assured  that  these  intel- 
lectual leaders  are  too  proud  to  submit,  and  so  forth, 
but  their  sound  sense  resents  the  threadbare  device. 
The  enlightened  world  has  travelled  beyond  the 
Middle  Ages.  The  awakening  masses  will  follow 
them. 

This  is  the  broad  interpretation  of  the  decay  of 
Catholicism  in  all  lands,  but  there  are  special  causes 
or  conditions  in  each  country.  In  France  the  chief  of 
these  were,  probably,  the  life  of  the  conventual  com- 
munities, the  interference  of  the  clergy  in  politics  and 
the  despotism  of  the  papacy.  I  have  quoted  a  French 
priest  who,  amidst  the  losses  of  his  Church,  found 
consolation  in  the  fact  that  160,000  monks  and  nuns 
found  sustenance  still  in  France.  He  seems  to  have 
had  no  suspicion  that  here  was  precisely  one  of  the 
grievances  of  the  French  laity ;  but  three  years  later 


FRANCE  35 

Waldeck- Rousseau  opened  the  historic  debates  con- 
cerning them.  It  was  found  by  the  Government  that 
the  religious  congregations  had  accumulated  enormous 
wealth  in  the  course  of  half-a-century.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Second  Empire  their  property  was  valued 
at  50,000,000  francs :  by  the  end  of  the  century  it  had 
attained  the  value  of  1,000,000,000  francs.1 

Besides  this  huge  capital  locked  up  in  mortmain, 
many  of  the  congregations  had  enormous  incomes. 
The  French  nation  decided  to  put  an  end  to  this 
irritating  and  economically  unhealthy  state  of  things, 
and  the  orders  were  mostly  expelled,  after  being 
allowed  time  to  realise  their  property. 

In  order  to  appreciate  fully  how  much  the  debates 
on  the  religious  congregations  contributed  to  the 
decay  of  religion  in  France  one  must  understand,  not 
only  that  the  wealth  was  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
professed  condition  of  the  monks,  and  was  largely 
withdrawn  from  ordinary  circulation,  but  that  the  full 
application  of  it  was  cloaked  in  a  suspicious  mystery, 
and  the  acquisition  and  control  of  it  were  in  many 
respects  most  offensive.  English  journals  often  mani- 
fested a  misplaced  sympathy  with  the  monks,  where 
a  closer  knowledge  of  the  facts  would  have  filled 
their  columns  with  resentment.  The  question  is  a 
large  one.  I  can  do  little  more  than  suggest  its 
extraordinary  features.  No  monks  or  nuns — the 
Jesuits  and  similar  associations  are  not  monks — can 
own  any  property,  either  individually  or  collectively. 

1  This  is  the  Government  estimate,  on  which  Catholic  orators 
threw  endless  ridicule.  But  it  is  certainly  far  short  of  the  true 
value.  There  were  then  17,000  of  these  religious  establishments 
in  France,  with  an  average  of  ten  inmates.  To  put  the  total  value 
of  their  real  estate  at  ^40,000,000  is  to  ascribe  to  them  an  average 
value  of  ^500.  As  a  former  monastic  trustee,  and  one  well 
acquainted  with  monastic  life  on  the  Continent,  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  this  sum  should  be  at  least  doubled. 


36     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

To  do  so  would  be,  in  their  belief,  the  most  deadly 
sin  they  can  commit.  Who,  then,  is  the  owner  of  the 
property  they  hold  ?  The  debates  of  Catholic  jurists 
on  the  point  have  a  Gilbertian  aspect,  for,  as  a  rule, 
they  can  find  no  owner  at  all.  Some  ascribe  the 
ownership  to  the  original  donors,  who  fancy  they 
have  entirely  parted  with  it :  others  to  the  Pope,  who 
has  not  the  remotest  knowledge  of  or  interest  in  it. 
For  practical  legal  purposes  one  or  two  monks,  or 
one  or  two  discreetly  chosen  laymen — frankly  de- 
scribed by  French  canonists  as  prtte-noms — lend 
their  names  as  legal  owners,  though  it  is  well  under- 
stood that  this  is  a  mere  fiction.  Conveyance,  etc., 
is  prudently  conducted  through  Catholic  solicitors 
in  burlesque  fashion.  I  have  in  this  way  bought  and 
sold  thousands  of  pounds  worth  of  property  for  a 
few  pence  (which  never  changed  hands)  in  the  heart 
of  London.  If  legal  processes  arise,  the  monks 
present  themselves  on  oath  as  the  legal  owners. 
They  are  indeed  enjoined  by  papal  decrees  that  they 
"may  with  a  clear  conscience  affirm,  even  on  oath, 
that  they  intended  to  acquire  the  ownership  and  the 
right  to  dispose  at  will  of  the  property  in  their 
possession  according  to  the  normal  tenor  of  the 
civil  law."  x 

Meantime,  they  are  reading  stories  daily  in  their 
monastic  literature  of  monks  who  were  cast  into  outer 
darkness  for  possessing  as  much  as  a  penny ;  and 
they  make  civil  declarations,  with  an  equally  "clear 
conscience,"  that  they  own  no  property  at  all — when, 
as  in  France  in  1900,  there  is  question  of  taxation. 

These  elusive  operations  of  their  casuists  are 
usually  clothed  in  the  decent  veil  of  a  dead  language, 

1  See  the  papal  decrees  in  P.  M.  Marres,  "  De  Iustitia,"  p.  440, 
and  Gury-Ballerini,  "  Compendium  theologise  moralis"  (ii.  No.  178) ; 
also  the  later  chapter  on  Belgium. 


FRANCE  37 

and  in  non-Catholic  countries  are  little  appreciated. 
In  France  they  are  familiar  enough,  and  are  found 
even  in  vernacular  treatises  (for  nuns)  such  as 
Craissons'  "  Des  communautes  religieuses,"  in  which 
there  are  whole  chapters  on  what  are  unblushingly 
called  xhzprete-noms.  The  French  Government  knew 
well  that  it  was  these  prete-noms  who  were  referred 
to  when  the  Benedictines  declared  that  the  property 
they  used  belonged  to  laymen  ;  indeed  after  their 
expulsion  the  Benedictines  were  found  to  be  offering 
£  100,000  for  a  domain  in  England,  and  most  of  the 
other  monks  took  great  wealth  in  their  emigration. 
The  officials  also  knew  that  the  monks  were  forbidden 
to  invest  their  money  in  ordinary  stock,  and  needed 
special  permission  from  Rome  in  each  case  to  do  so. 
That  a  nation  which  was  now  overwhelmingly  non- 
Catholic  should  feel  impatience  at  these  manoeuvres 
of  the  religious  communities  in  their  midst  can  hardly 
be  a  matter  of  surprise. 

But  the  French  layman's  impatience  was  stimulated 

when  he  found,  or  suspected,  that  this  wealth  was 

being   transferred   to    Rome,    or   being   used  in   the 

secret  efforts  to  destroy  the   Republic.     Mr   Bodley 

will  assuredly  not  be  suspected  of  injustice  to  French 

Catholics — his  work  is  marred  rather  by  deep  injustice 

to  the  more   advanced   of  their  opponents — and  we 

saw  his  remark  that  "they  identified  themselves  with 

the  most  inept  political  party  that  ever  irretrievably 

wrecked  a  powerful  cause,"  the  Royalist  cause.     Even 

F.    Brunetiere   admitted    in    the   Deux  Mondes   that 

"des  imprudences  avaient  et6"  commises  sur  le  terrain 

politique."     Indeed  every  attempt  to  clear  the  clergy 

of  this    charge  would    be  an   impeachment  of  their 

zeal.     No  one  doubts  that  the  position  of  the  Church 

would  be  vastly  changed  by  a  return  of  the  Orleanists. 

One  would  prefer  to  regard  it  as  a  point  of  honour 


38     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

for  Jesuits  and  Dominicans  to  intrigue  for  the  restora- 
tion of  their  Church.  But  it  was  equally  a  point  of 
honour  for  a  republic  that  found  itself  thus  attacked 
— found  its  army  and  navy  filling  with  officers  who 
enjoyed  the  guidance  and  help  of  Pere  Dulac  and 
Pere  Didon — to  make  the  intrigue  impossible. 

Thus  the  religious  congregations  contributed  to 
the  downfall  of  the  Church  of  Rome  in  France. 
They  performed  no  service  in  the  least  proportionate 
to  the  vast  wealth  they  accumulated,  and  they  were 
instinctively  disloyal  to  the  form  of  government  that 
has  proved  best  for  the  country.  They  ignored  the 
Concordat,  the  unauthorised  bodies  growing  far 
beyond  the  authorised  (and  useful)  bodies  ;  and  so 
the  Republic  tore  up  Napoleon's  Concordat,  and 
bade  the  Church  realise  the  true  slenderness  of  its 
proportions. 

The  present  "hors  de  Rome"  movement  has, 
therefore,  far  more  serious  grounds  than  any  that 
preceded.  It  has  every  indication  of  stability  and 
permanence.  It  remains  for  us  only  to  glance  at 
what  the  clerical  writer  calls  the  "  solid  core  "  that  has 
been  left  behind,  and  see  if  its  loyalty  is  such  as  to 
afford  some  security  against  further  heavy  losses. 
Unhappily  for  the  Vatican,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
restless  and  recalcitrant  bodies  of  clergy  and  laity 
in  the  Church,  and  the  strain  laid  upon  it  by  an 
unenlightened  papal  policy  is  very  severe.  During 
the  debate  on  the  Associations  Bill  in  the  Senate  a 
Catholic  senator,  M.  Dupuy,  pleaded  for  his  Church 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  at  last  moving  with  the 
advance  of  thought.  He  pointed  to  the  liberty 
enjoyed  by  M.  Loisy.  Within  a  week  or  two  a 
document  came  from  the  Vatican  putting  four  works 
by  the  Abbe  Loisy  and  two  by  the  Abb6  Houtin  on 
the  Index!     Houtin  and  other  scholarly  priests,  and 


FRANCE  39 

many  laymen,  at  once  left  the  Church,  and  Loisy  is 
now  rejected  from  it ;  later,  when  the  French  Govern- 
ment invited  the  Catholics  to  form  associations  cul- 
tuelles  for  the  purpose  of  taking  over  the  property 
of  the  disestablished  Church,  two-thirds  of  the  bishops 
decided  to  do  so,  and  twenty  of  the  leading  laymen 
(Brunetiere,  De  Mun,  etc.)  wrote  a  public  letter  in 
support  of  the  project.1  But  the  Vatican  sent  strin- 
gent orders  that  they  must  not  enter  into  the  Govern- 
ment's plan.  M.  Briand,  anxious  to  make  the 
position  of  the  clergy  easier,  informed  them  that  a 
simple  annual  declaration  would  suffice  to  enable 
them  to  use  the  churches.  Again  many  of  the 
bishops  had  already  directed  their  clergy  to  comply 
when  an  uncompromising  prohibition  came  from 
Rome.  For  ten  years  the  French  clergy  had  been 
hampered  in  their  struggle  by  the  unwise  policy  of 
the  Vatican.  It  is  recorded  that  Leo  XIII.  said  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Albi,  when  he  came  to  pay  his 
annual  visit,  "  Well,  monseigneur,  is  it  to  be  schism  ?  " 
"fa  depends,"  the  archbishop  is  reported  to  have 
said.  Travelling  in  France  in  September  1905  I 
read  in  a  Parisian  journal  an  interview  with  the  same 
prelate  on  the  action  of  certain  civic  officials  who 
had  compelled  a  convent  to  dismiss  a  young  lady 
who  sought  the  veil,  while  her  mother  claimed  her. 
The  prelate  fully  approved  of  the  nuns  being  com- 
pelled to  give  her  up,  and  not  obscurely  declared  his 
conviction  that  the  day  of  nunneries  was  over.  In 
September  1906  the  Matin,  a  Catholic  organ  (quoted 

1  The  decision  of  the  bishops  was  taken  just  after  the  election 
of  1906.  They  knew  that,  while  Cardinal  Gibbons  was  calling 
for  a  civil  war,  and  they  themselves  had  made  the  most  strenuous 
efforts  to  secure  political  support,  the  issue  of  the  election  was  a 
further  gain  of  fifty-eight  seats  by  the  Left !  In  the  new  Chambre 
415  Republicans,  Radicals  and  Socialists  faced  a  paltry  Opposition 
of  175  reactionaries.     The  Vatican  also  must  have  known  this. 


40  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

in  The  Daily  News,  9th  September  1906),  had  an 
article  on  the  Eucharistic  Congress  of  Tournay,  at 
which  the  papal  legate  (and  chief  candidate  for  the 
papacy)  presided.  "  Not  a  sign  of  the  three  virtues 
of  Faith,  Charity  and  Humility  was  discernible  in 
the  gorgeous  ceremonial,"  it  said  :  "  nothing  but  wor- 
ship of  the  Pope  in  the  person  of  his  legate,  Cardinal 
Vanutelli,  nothing  but  incessant  genuflexions  and 
changes  of  robes.  The  whole  thing  was  a  parody 
of  true  religion.  .  .  .  Roman  fetichism,  not  the  Catholic 
religion." 

And  with  these  and  a  hundred  other  symptoms 
before  his  eyes  Pius  X.  has  moved  blindly  from  one 
piece  of  despotism  to  another.  Under  his  inspiration 
the  last  sparks  of  enlightenment  are  trampled  out  in 
the  French  Church.  Every  expression  that  shows  a 
tendency  to  approach  the  scholarship  of  the  greater 
theologians  of  Germany  and  England  is  bitterly 
assailed,  and  its  author  is  driven  into  silence.1 
Between  an  Archbishop  of  Paris  who  believes  the 
world  is  6000  years  old  (Houtin  says)  and  the  Syllabus 
of  Pius  X.  the  educated  Catholics  of  France  are  in 
sad  straits,  and  their  number  steadily  diminishes.  A 
Catholic  periodical  at  Lyons,  Domain,  in  terminating 
its  existence  as  soon  as  the  recent  Syllabus  was 
published,  said  : 

"After  recent  events,  the  intentions  and  ideas  of  the  most 
sincere  Catholics  have  been  obscured  and  misunderstood  to  such 
an  extent  that  it  seems  to  us  necessary  to  wait  until  tranquillity  is 
restored  before  we  resume  our  labours.  .  .  .  The  decree  of  the 
Holy  Office  will  annihilate  critical  exegetics  in  Catholic  schools."  2 


1  See  the  remarkable  picture  of  the  inner  life  of  the  French 
Church  in  Houtin's  "  La  Bible  au  vingtieme  siecle." 

2  Two  other  French  Catholic  journals,  La  Quinzaine  and  La 
Revue  cThistoire  etde  litterature  religieuses,  have  also  been  suppressed, 
and   a  further  three  {La  vie  Catholique,  La  Justice  sociak,  Leveil 


FRANCE  41 

French  Catholics  are  to-day  of  three  chief  types  : 
(i)  the  thoroughly  and  deliberately  orthodox,  who 
are  few,  (2)  the  Liberals,  who  are  being  driven 
out  of  the  Church,  and  (3)  the  still  large  majority 
of  conventional  Catholics,  who  are  only  waiting  to 
be  affected  by  modern  criticisms  or  grievances,  and 
are  daily  diminishing.  In  this  predicament,  enfeebled 
in  its  resources,  hampered  by  a  foreign  authority 
that  refused  to  understand  the  times,  and  rent  by  the 
struggles  between  the  progressive  and  the  reactionary, 
the  French  Church  is  bound  to  sink  lower  and  lower. 
There  is  not  even  in  France  the  ambiguous  promise 
of  a  future  that  the  Catholic  Church  has  in  many 
other  countries,  where  it  will  in  time  be  summoned 
to  an  alliance  against  the  advance  of  Socialism.  It 
is,  indeed,  in  these  troubled  political  waters  that  the 
French  clerical  diplomatist  fishes,  with  many  other 
weary  anglers.  The  ever-threatening  split  between 
Liberal,  Radical  and  Socialist  Republicans  might 
give  fresh  life  for  a  time  to  the  drooping  energies  of 
the  priests.  But  the  Liberals  of  France  can  never 
enter  into  that  alliance  with  the  clericals  that  we  may 
in  time  see  them  contract  in  Italy  or  Germany.  It  is 
by  spiritual  effort  alone  that  the  Church  may  recover 
any  ground.  Certain  political  contingencies  might 
encourage  it  to  make  such  an  effort.  At  present  it 
seems  incapable  of  the  exertion.  It  is  either  deluded 
with  the  new  papal  idea  that  strict  fidelity  to  medieval 

democratique)  are  under  discussion  by  the  Catholic  authorities  as  I 
write.  The  modern  inquisition  set  up  by  Pius  X.  is  equally  busy  in 
other  countries.  The  Studi  religiosi  of  Dr  Minnocchi,  the  most 
cultured  Catholic  journal  of  Italy,  has  been  forced  to  close  its 
career,  and  the  Rinnovamento  of  Milan  has  been  put  on  the  Index. 
In  Germany  Father  Miiller,  editor  of  the  Renaissance  (Munich), 
has  been  suspended,  and  a  review  entitled  The  Twentieth  Century 
has  disappeared.  So  the  "  unity  "  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
is  to  be  restored. 


42    DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

standards,  and  absolute  scorn  of  modern  research,  will 
ensure  for  it  the  intervention  of  a  miraculous  power; 
or,  in  its  more  enlightened  representatives,  it  is 
wrapped  in  silent  and  mournful  contemplation  of  the 


ruins  of  its  once  glorious  edifice. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  LATIN  WORLD— ITALY 

THE  story  of  the  decay  of  Romanism  in  the 
other  Latin  countries  follows  so  closely  the 
story  of  its  fortunes  in  France  that  our  task 
here  will  be  to  give  positive  indications  of  loss  rather 
than  historical  explanations.  The  rationalistic  culture 
that  flourished  in  France  in  the  eighteenth  century  is 
the  first  stage  in  the  modern  disruption  of  Catholicism. 
Strict  as  the  Inquisition  was,  the  works  of  the  French 
writers  passed  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Alps,  and  be- 
gan the  disintegration  of  the  faith  in  Spain  and  its 
colonies,  and  in  Italy,  where  traditions  of  the  Re- 
nascence still  lingered  in  cultured  circles.  The  start- 
ling glare  of  the  Revolution  drew  wider  attention 
to  them,  and  Napoleon's  troops  beat  down  for  a 
few  years  the  clerical  barriers  set  up  against  them. 
Liberalism  came  to  birth  in  the  whole  Latin  world, 
and  set  about  its  centenarian  struggle  with  the 
CathoHc  clergy  and  Catholic  rulers. 

In  Italy  the  serious  decadence  of  Romanism  may 
be  dated  from  the  later  sixties — as  in  France — when 
an  almost  united  Italy  made  pressing  overtures  to 
Rome  to  enter  peacefully  into  the  national  life.  A 
light  scepticism  had  spread  amongst  the  middle  class 
long  before  that  time,  but  the  Pope  could  have 
secured  the  neutrality  of  the  sceptics  and  the  enthusi- 
asm of  the  faithful  if  he  had  appreciated  the  moment 
of  destiny.  He  might  have  reigned  over  Italy,  a 
co-ruler  with  the  king,  with  more  dignity  and  profit 
than  he  had  ever  done  before.  He  chose  to  adopt  an 
43 


44     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

attitude  that  has  utterly  failed  in  its  design,  and  that 
laid  a  severe  strain  on  the  loyalty  of  millions.  At 
once  scepticism  penetrated  to  a  deeper  level,  and  the 
rebellion  began  in  earnest. 

The  Catholic  temper  of  the  nation  had  been  sorely 
tried  from  the  beginning  of  the  century.  The  papal 
reception  of  the  revolutionary  outbreak  had  been  as 
little  enlightened  as  that  of  the  Reformation  by  the 
court  of  Leo  X.  In  the  eighteenth  century  the  echo 
of  the  thunder  beyond  the  Alps  had  been  heard  with 
momentary  petulance  by  the  frivolous  groups  at  the 
Vatican.  Why  should  these  turbulent,  vulgar  monks 
disturb  so  pretty  and  balanced  a  world,  so  refined  an 
alliance  of  art  and  religion  and  culture?  The  story 
was  repeated  in  the  nineteenth  century,  with  the  same 
sequel.  The  rulers  of  the  Papal  States,  and  their 
"  beloved  sons  "  in  the  Austrian  and  Bourbon  princi- 
palities, learned  as  little  as  Louis  XVIII.  did  from 
the  new  quickening  of  the  people's  blood.  At  their 
restoration  in  1815  they  abolished  almost  all  the 
reforms  that  the  French  had  introduced  and  revived 
the  older  abuses.  The  Inquisition,  the  ecclesiastical 
method  of  administering  justice,  the  restriction  of  the 
press,  the  crude  old  fiscal  system,  and  many  other 
evils,  were  restored.  The  new  demand  for  popular 
education  was  met  by  restoring  the  Jesuits  and  en- 
trusting the  schools  to  their  discreet  management. 
Mr  Bolton  King,  it  is  true,  holds  that  Cardinal 
Consalvi  moderated  for  a  time  the  reaction  that  oc- 
curred under  Pius  VII.  This  is  a  statement  of  Ranke's, 
but  it  is  vigorously  discredited  by  Dollinger,  and  other 
historians.  In  any  case  Consalvi's  efforts  were  soon 
thwarted,  as  all  admit,  by  the  weakness  of  the  Pope 
and  the  violence  of  his  advisers.  "  I  don't  want  learned 
men  :  I  want  good  subjects,"  the  Austrian  emperor 
had  said.     That  was  not  a  novel  sentiment  in  Italy. 


ITALY  45 

In  the  succeeding  decades  the  life  of  the  papal 
court  and  the  administration  of  the  Papal  States  were 
distinguished  for  all  their  old  corruption.  "A  few 
scholars,"  says  Mr  King,  "a  few  ecclesiastial statesmen 
of  ability,  and  a  few  old  men  of  simple  pious  worth, 
only  set  in  blacker  relief  the  general  worldiness  and 
frivolity  of  the  Roman  Court. " 1  Bribery  and  corruption 
flourished  to  a  frightful  extent  among  the  clerical 
administrators.  It  is  true  that  the  papal  court  was 
wealthy  enough  to  refrain  from  imposing  heavy 
taxation,  but  in  all  other  respects  the  inhabitants, 
says  Orsi,  "paid  for  the  honour  of  being  ruled  by 
the  successor  of  St  Peter  by  exclusion  from  all  the 
advantages  of  modern  civilisation." 2  Brigandage  was 
so  rife  that  9000  soldiers  had  to  guard  the  roads  when 
the  King  of  Prussia  visited  the  country.  The  police 
were  wholly  occupied  with  the  extinction  of  whatever 
sparks  of  higher  ambition  fell  upon  the  land.  One 
of  their  documents  is  known  that  enjoins  a  special 
surveillance  of  "the  class  called  thinkers."  In  the 
provinces  only  2  per  cent.,  at  Rome  itself  only  10 
per  cent.,  of  the  population  attended  school,  where 
they  received  a  miserable  instruction,  often  for  only 
two  hours  a  day.  Traffic  in  sacred  things  and  sacred 
offices  was  open  and  flagrant :  the  public  lottery  was 
worked  on  Sundays  in  the  interest  of  the  Exchequer  : 
all  distinctively  modern  works,  and  even  such  journals 
as  The  Times,  were  on  the  Index.  And  while  the 
indolent  and  sensual  Gregory  XVI.,  "absorbed  in 
ignoble  pursuits "  (says  Mr  King),  excluding  even 
railways  from  his  territory  lest  they  do  "harm  to 
religion  " — whilst  this  pontiff  was  characterising  the 
new  humanitarian  thought  in  the  most  malignant 
terms,  we  find  the  poorer  people  living  in   "  infinite 

1  "  History  of  Italian  Unity,"  p.  73. 

2  "  Modern  Italy,"  p.  127. 


i(>  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

degradation "  under  the  shadow  of  the  Vatican, 
Rome  generally  "as  immoral  as  any  city  in  Europe," 
and  Naples,  with  its  40,000  lazzaroni,  disclosing 
"unfathomed  depths  of  degraded  life." 

The  action  of  Napoleon  in  Italy,  beneficent  as  it 
was  in  social  respects,  had  presented  itself  in  too 
violent  a  form  to  the  Catholic  Italian  to  prove  educa- 
tive. But  he  had  at  least  left  the  fair  vision  of  a 
united  Italy  in  the  land,  and  his  saner  and  juster 
administration  could  not  be  forgotten.  These 
memories  soon  began  to  germinate  in  the  minds  of 
the  brave  and  the  thoughtful.  Secret  societies  spread 
throughout  the  country.  The  famous  Carbonari  were 
by  no  means  consistently  anticlerical.  They  dreamed 
at  times  of  a  new  papacy  leading  a  regenerated  Italy. 
But  the  feeling  of  political  rebellion  that  they  fostered 
was  always  apt  to  spread  into  the  domain  of  doctrine, 
and  materially  aided  the  growth  of  the  Voltairean 
scepticism  of  men  like  Confalioneri  and  the  more 
profound  religious  revolt  of  the  followers  of  Mazzini. 
Gregory  XVI.  had  to  complain  in  1832  (Encyclical 
of  15th  August)  of  "the  existing  widespread  un- 
belief." Against  that  "unbelief"  all  the  rulers  of 
Italy,  except  the  Sardinian  monarchy,  waged  a  bloody 
and  implacable  war.  But  the  brutal  measures  of  the 
Papal,  Austrian  and  Neapolitan  rulers,  and  the  heroic 
struggles  of  the  early  Italian  Liberals,  cannot  be  en- 
larged upon  here. 

Pius  IX.  succeeded  in  1846  to  the  rule  of  the  Papal 
States.  By  that  time  most  of  the  other  European 
nations  had  entered  seriously  upon  the  work  of 
social  reform,  but  the  inhabitants  of  the  Papal  States 
were,  says  Orsi,  "still  in  the  most  absolute  ignorance 
and  squalor."  For  a  few  years  the  new  Pope  re- 
sponded to  the  significant  welcome  that  had  been 
given  him,  and  sanctioned  a  few  moderate  reforms. 


ITALY  47 

But  the  sight  of  the  fresh  revolutionary  movement 
that  was  coming  down  from  the  north,  and  the  in- 
surrection at  Rome,  from  which  he  fled  in  terror, 
threw  him  into  the  arms  of  the  reactionary  cardinals. 
The  state  of  things  set  up  by  the  cardinals  after  the 
return  from  Gaeta  was  described  by  the  English 
ambassador  as  "the  opprobrium  of  Europe."  We 
who  know  that  Pius  IX.  was  declared  to  be  infallible 
a  few  years  later,  and  is  about  to  be  canonised  in  our 
time,  look  on  the  spectacle  with  curious  feelings.1 
We  see  a  timid  and  nebulous  pontiff,  surrounded  by  a 
circle  of  prelates,  not  unlike  the  cordon  of  grand  dukes 
round  the  Tsar,  with  a  cardinal  (Antonelli)  at  their 
head  who  was  to  leave  a  fortune  of  100,000,000  lire  and  a 
natural  daughter  (Countess  Lambertini)  clamouring  for 
a  share  of  it,  fencing  off  their  profitable  little  kingdom 
from  the  spirit  of  the  age  by  terrors  of  inquisition, 
regiments  of  police,  the  refusal  of  general  education, 
and  the  drastic  suppression  of  economic  study.  When 
in  1859  the  Austrians  were  driven  out  by  the  allied 
French  and  Italians,  and  the  dream  of  a  united  Italy 
illumined  the  mind  of  every  patriot,  the  attention  of 
the  country  became  concentrated  on  the  papacy.  Mr 
King  ventures  to  say  they  beheld  "  a  power  .  .  . 
clinging  to  its  poor  rag  of  earthly  dominion,  while 
it  vented  its  screeds  of  impotent  passion,  and  forgot 
bare  morality  in  lust  of  revenge."  Certain  it  is,  at 
least,  that  "the  Pope's  unctuous  patronage  of  iniquity 
was  digging  a  gulf  between  the  papacy  and  Italy," 
and    the   Vatican's   reliance    on   foreign   intervention 

1  Infallible,  of  course,  only  in  dogmatic  teaching.  But  a  theory 
that  would  ask  us  to  believe  that  a  supernatural  oracle  existed  at 
the  Vatican,  ready  to  give  absolute  inerrancy  in  such  remote 
details  as  immaculate  conceptions,  yet  unwilling  to  grant  any 
assistance  whatever  in  these  more  momentous  affairs,  is  hardly 
entitled  to  respect. 


48     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

only  enlarged  it.  One  has  only  to  read  a  clerical 
historian  like  Balan  to  realise  how  Italy's  serious 
defection  from  the  papacy,  on  more  than  political 
grounds,  dates  largely  from  this  fateful  decade  be- 
tween i860  and  1870.  The  notorious  Materialist, 
Moleschott,  expelled  from  Germany,  found  a  congenial 
home  in  Italy,  and  spread  his  convictions  there.  The 
ex-priest,  Ausonio  Franchi,  was  made  professor  at 
the  university  of  Pavia,  and  led  a  considerable  party 
of  Rationalists.  Hegelianism  was  taught  in  the 
university  of  Naples.  An  ex-priest,  Trezza,  taught 
in  the  Instituto  Superiore  at  Florence.  Balan  protests 
indeed  that  "the  chairs  at  the  universities,  gymnasia 
and  lycea  were  full  of  apostate  priests ."  "  Veramente," 
he  concludes,  after  many  pages  on  the  growth  of 
Rationalism  in  the  sixties,  "l'ltalia  dopo  il  i860 
parve  terra  di  conquista  dei  ribelli  a  Dio."1  How 
the  misguided  pontiff  met  the  gathering  storm  is 
familiar  enough.  He  issued  the  Syllabus.  Theo- 
logians still  dispute  as  to  the  technical  fallibility  or 
infallibility  of  this  document,  but  if  ever  a  pope  in- 
tended to  teach  dogmatically,  urbi  et  orbi,  Pius  IX. 
then  did.  Many  of  the  theses  he  condemned  are 
now  truths  that  the  Catholic  apologist  hastens  to 
profess  : 

"At  least  there  is  some  hope  of  the  eternal  safety 
of  those  who  live  outside  the  true  Church. 

"  Every  man  is  free  to  embrace  the  religion  which 
his  reason  assures  him  to  be  true. 

"  Divine  revelation  is  not  perfect,  and  is  therefore 
subject  to  indefinite  progress,  in  harmony  with  the 
advance  of  reason. 

"  In  certain  Catholic   countries    it   has  been  very 

1  "Continuazione  alia  Storia  Universale,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  477.481: 
"In  truth  after  i860  Italy  seems  to  have  been  conquered  by  the 
rebels  against  God." 


ITALY  49 

properly  laid  down  that  immigrant  non-Catholics  shall 
have  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion. 

"  The  Roman  Pontiff  can  and  ought  to  be  recon- 
ciled with  progress,  liberalism  and  modern  civism." 

The  condemnation  of  such  theses  as  these  did  not 
tend  to  close  the  ever-widening  gulf. 

On  the  political  side  the  papal  attitude  was  equally- 
disastrous  to  Catholicism.  It  is  said  that  the  Vatican 
would  now  be  prepared  to  make  peace  with  Italy  if 
the  Leonine  City  alone  (a  very  small  strip  of  Rome 
about  St  Peter's  and  the  Vatican)  is  conceded  to  it.1 
In  the  sixties  such  a  proposal  would  have  averted  a 
whole  generation  of  suffering  and  prepared  an  alliance 
of  Quirinal  and  Vatican  against  Socialism  that  would 
at  least  have  mitigated  the  actual  losses  of  Rome. 
But  the  inspiration  of  the  Vatican,  whatever  its 
source,  has  been  consistently  unfortunate.  Pius  IX. 
maintained  the  gulf  between  his  interest  and  that 
of  Italy  by  his  violent  insistence  on  a  complete  re- 
storation of  the  Papal  States.  Leo  XIII.  restricted 
the  demand  to  the  city  of  Rome,  but  the  nation  had 
passed  hopelessly  beyond  the  point  of  entertaining 
such  a  proposition.  Pius  X.  is  furtively  letting  it  be 
understood  that  the  Leonine  City  will  suffice  him, 
but  the  nation  is  rapidly  moving  on  to  a  point  of 
indifference  to  the  Vatican's  good-will.  The  great 
blunder  of  the  claim  of  temporal  power  led  to  others. 
Pius  IX.  withdrew  sullenly  into  the  Vatican,  and 
refused  to  gratify  Rome  with  the  solemn  or  brilliant 
pageants  which  the  ritual  of  St  Peter's  can  provide. 
Leo  XIII.  saw  the  crude  error  of  this  attitude,  and 
quickly  reversed  it ;  but  he  in  turn  maintained  the 
prohibition  to  Catholics  to  take  part  in  the  general 
elections  of  the  country.  Pius  X.  has  retracted  the 
non  expedit,  but  the  last  elections  show  how  fatal  the 
1  So  King  and  Okey,  in  "  Italy  To-day." 


50     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

long  political  paralysis  has  been  to  the  Catholic  forces. 
Finally,  while  Pius  IX.  missed  the  great  opportunity 
of  offering  Rome,  and  taking  his  place  as  virtual  co- 
ruler  of  the  nation,  Leo  XIII.  made  an  equal  blunder 
in  refusing  the  princely  state  and  salary  decreed  to 
the  Pope  since  1870.  The  few  million  lire  of  the 
Peter's  pence  collection  are  a  poor  consolation  for 
the  spectacle  that  "affrights"  Pius  X.  to-day. 

With  the  history  of  the  relations  of  Church  and  State 
in  Italy  since  1870  I  need  not  deal,  and  I  hasten  to 
give  positive  indications  of  the  losses  sustained  by  the 
Vatican.  The  usual  compiler  of  religious  statistics 
finds  his  task  a  light  one  in  regard  to  countries 
where  the  decennial  census  reports  the  religion  of  the 
inhabitants.  If  we  follow  his  example,  we  shall  find  it 
difficult  to  understand  the  papal  lament  and  the  obser- 
vations of  every  informed  writer  on  the  religious  con- 
dition of  Italy.  At  the  census  of  1901  the  population 
was  discovered  to  be  32,500,000,  and  of  these  no 
less  than  97  per  cent,  (or  31,500,000)  described 
themselves,  or  were  described,  as  Roman  Catholics. 
Even  here,  it  is  true,  we  find  a  significant  change.  Of 
the  outstanding  million,  65,595  (of  whom  30,000  are 
foreigners)  wrote  themselves  "  Protestants  "  and  35,6 1 7 
"Jews."  "No  religion"  was  entered  on  the  census 
papers  by  only  36,092,  whom  we  may  take  to  be  the 
more  militant  Freethinkers  of  the  large  towns.  But  we 
have  in  the  end  the  remarkable  item  of  795,276  whose 
religion  is  "not  known."  Clearly  these  are  seceders 
from  Catholicism.  As  this  item  is  almost  a  new 
appearance  of  the  last  two  decades  it  is  in  itself  a 
formidable  evidence  of  leakage.  In  1871  this  class 
numbered  only  48,000,  while  997  of  the  population 
were  "  Catholics." 

But  no  serious  social  student  will  fancy  he  has  the 
number  of  the  real  adherents  of  the  Vatican  in  this 


ITALY  51 

census  report  or,  if  any  do,  the  facts  and  figures  we 
shall  give  presently  must  undeceive  him.  It  is  very 
well  known  how  the  indifferent  commonly  avoid 
the  inconvenience  that  their  heretical  opinions  might 
entail  by  the  cheap  device  of  writing  themselves 
orthodox.1  In  Italy,  where  Catholicism  has  come  to 
be  quite  consistent,  in  men's  minds,  with  a  complete 
disdain  of  Rome  and  all  its  ways,  as  well  as  a  genial 
indifference  to  its  moral  theories,  a  little  heresy  on 
the  less  important  questions  of  doctrine  need  not 
excite  scruples.  The  educated  Italian  is  a  Catholic 
much  as  the  educated  Japanese  is  a  Shintoist ;  while 
Socialism,  which  the  Vatican  has  emphatically  de- 
nounced as  putting  a  man  outside  the  pale,  has  made 
extraordinary  progress  amongst  the  masses.  The 
entry  of  "Catholic"  in  the  census  paper  very  often 
means  only  that  one  is  neither  Protestant  nor  Jew. 

The  defection  of  the  educated  classes  is  pointed 
out  by  nearly  every  writer  on  Italy.  King  and  Okey 
declare,  in  their  most  careful  and  authoritative  work, 
that  "there  can  hardly  be  any  doubt,  from  the  confes- 
sion of  the  Catholics  themselves,  that  Catholicism 
has  small  hold  on  the  educated  classes,"  and  that 
"the  professional  classes  and  the  great  majority  of  the 
university  students  are,  and  have  been  for  many  years, 
either  indifferent  or  hostile."2  Deputies,  they  tell 
us,  who  attend  mass  when  they  are  at  home  in  the 

1  Another  aspect  of  the  matter  comes  out  in  such  experiences  as 
the  following.  A  friend  of  mine  had  occasion  to  settle  in  Germany 
for  a  year.  The  vigilant  police  provided  him  with  a  form  on  which, 
amongst  a  hundred  minute  details,  he  was  to  declare  his  religion. 
"  None,"  he  promptly  wrote.  "  Aber,  das  ist  unmoglich,"  said  the 
paternal  officer.  He  was  obliged  to  write  some  positive  epithet  on 
the  paper.  In  Spain  the  officials  count  all  who  have  been  baptised 
as  Catholics.  We  shall  see,  as  we  proceed,  some  most  extraordinary 
corrections  of  census  figures. 

2  "  Italy  To-day,"  p.  30. 


52     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

provinces  dare  not  do  so  at  Rome,  so  general  is  the 
feeling  that  cultured  men  are  no  longer  Catholics. 
Fischer,  another  cautious  and  authoritative  writer, 
says  that  "  indifferentism  is,  perhaps,  more  widespread 
amongst  educated  Italians  than  in  the  corresponding 
class  of  any  other  nation."1  One  of  the  latest  and 
most  authoritative  French  works  on  Italy  tells  the 
same  story.  The  writer  on  the  religion  of  the  Italians 
says  that  almost  every  educated  Italian  will  declare 
at  once  that  religion  "does  not  exist"  amongst  his 
class.2  That  these  statements  are  justified  will  not 
be  doubted  by  anyone  who  is  acquainted  with  Italian 
life  and  literature.  The  best  journals,  magazines  and 
works  in  the  country  reflect  such  a  temper  on  the  part 
of  the  cultivated  community.  Of  the  9975  books 
published  in  1900 — the  last  year  for  which  I  have  the 
figures — only  698  were  religious  works  ;  and  this  list 
includes  Rome.  In  1894  Professor  Haeckel,  a  notori- 
ous opponent  of  Catholicism,  celebrated  his  sixtieth 
birthday.  Amongst  his  gratulatory  telegrams  was 
this  official  message  from  the  Italian  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction: 

"  Italy,  that  you  love  so  much,  takes  cordial  part  in  all  the  honours 
that  the  civilised  nations  of  the  earth  are  heaping  on  you  in  com- 
memoration of  your  sixtieth  birthday.  In  the  name  of  the  Italian 
universities,  which  love  you  so  much,  and  so  much  admire  your 
undying  work,  I  send  you  a  heartfelt  greeting  and  wishes  for  a  long 
and  happy  and  active  career." 

Four  years  later  the  Royal  Academy  of  Science  at 
Turin  awarded  the  Bressa  prize — a  diploma  and  large 
sum  of  money — to   Haeckel's  "  Systematische  Phylo- 

1  "Italien  und  die  Italiener,"  p.  417. 

2  "  L'ltalie  Geographique,"  etc.,  ed.  R.  Bazin.  The  writer  of  the 
section  on  religion,  a  Catholic,  who  does  not  welcome  the  statement, 
is  content  only  to  pronounce  it  "  exaggerated."  There  are,  of  course, 
educated  Catholic  Italians — apparent  rari. 


ITALY  53 

genie,"  as  the  most  meritorious  scientific  work  pub- 
lished in  Europe  between  1895  and  1898.  A  few 
years  later  again,  we  find  the  Ministry  of  Public  In- 
struction offering  its  Collegio  Romano  for  the  holding 
of  a  Freethought  Congress  at  Rome,  and  granting 
considerable  privileges  to  the  assembled  enemies  of 
the  Vatican,  a  matter  to  which  I  shall  return  later. 

Such  facts  as  these,  which  could  hardly  occur  in 
any  other  Christian  country  except  France,  fully  sub- 
stantiate Herr  Fischer's  estimate  of  the  educated 
Italians.  However  they  may  describe  themselves 
in  the  idle  formality  of  the  census,  they  have,  to  say 
the  least,  ceased  to  be  predominantly  Catholic.  Such 
men  as  Lombroso,  Sergi,  De  Amicis,  D'Annunzio, 
Ardigo,  Ferri,  Ghisleri,  etc.,  stand,  in  their  several  ways, 
for  the  thought  of  modern  Italy.  They  are  humanists 
and  scholars.  The  narrow  supernaturalism  of  the 
Vatican,  enforced  with  medieval  vigour  and  crudeness 
by  the  simple-minded  pontiff,  is  disdained  by  them 
and  their  readers.  The  selfish  clericalism  of  the 
Vatican,  covering  itself  with  thin  pretexts  of  spiritual 
independence,  offends  their  patriotism ;  and  the  im- 
punity of  their  rulers  and  officials,  involved  as  they 
are  in  a  maze  of  standing  anathemas,  excites  their 
ridicule.  They  have  with  them  most  of  the  informed 
minds  of  the  country,  and  they  smile  at  the  Vatican's 
huge  following  of  peasants,  women  and  children. 
The  few  cultivated  men  who  wish  to  remain  Catholic 
are  driven  out,  or  chilled  into  silence.  It  is  only  two 
years  since  the  ablest  of  them,  Fogazzaro,  had  his 
greatest  novel,  "  II  Santo,"  put  on  the  Index,  because  it 
hinted  that  the  avarice  and  stagnation  of  the  Vatican 
are  ruining  the  Church.  The  middle  class  is  lost  to 
the  Church  in  Italy. 

When  we  pass  to  the  workers  we  find  that  a  like 
rebellion  is  spreading  amongst  these  with  extraordinary 


54    DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

rapidity,  and  has  already  withdrawn,  directly  or  in- 
directly, some  millions  of  the  proletariate  from  clerical 
influence.  A  new  force  has  arisen  in  the  country, 
which  the  Vatican  dreads  more  than  the  accommodat- 
ing scepticism  of  the  cultured.  If  the  decadence  of 
Catholicism  in  Italy  depended  wholly  upon  intellectual 
criticism  of  its  doctrines,  the  papal  authorities  would 
have  little  ground  for  their  pressing  anxiety.  It  is 
not  merely  that  the  bulk  of  their  followers  are  still 
quite  illiterate,  and  are  likely  to  remain  indifferent  to 
intellectual  issues  for  some  generations.  The  more 
important  point  is  that,  as  Professor  Fiamingo  ob- 
serves, with  the  majority  of  the  Italians  religion  is 
neither  a  judicial  assent  to  doctrines  nor  a  deep  feeling 
in  regard  to  personality.  It  is  mainly  a  facile  com- 
pliance with  certain  customs  of  immemorial  antiquity. 
The  orenerous  observance  of  these  external  forms  that 
he  sees  often  disposes  the  traveller  to  think  they  have 
a  deep  inner  inspiration,  but  a  closer  scrutiny  will 
undeceive  him.  He  will  hear  the  Catholic  fisherman 
laughingly  call  his  neighbour  a  "  Joseph"  on  account 
of  some  fancied  resemblance  of  his  child  to  the  priest, 
with  an  implication  that  would  shock  a  Protestant 
unspeakably.  Their  fishing  and  their  crops  depend 
on  these  magical  rites  ;  and  their  clergy  have  never 
pressed  them  heavily  in  the  matter  of  God's  com- 
mandments, if  they  have  been  somewhat  exacting  in 
regard  to  the  "  commandments  of  the  Church."  On 
such  a  temper,  amongst  grossly  illiterate  peasants, 
difficulties  of  science  and  history  and  philosophy  have 
little  effect. 

Unhappily  for  the  Church,  France  has  directed  into 
Italy  a  new  current  of  interest,  and  withdrawn  millions 
of  the  most  intelligent  workers  from  the  Vatican's 
allegiance.  The  artisans  are  following  the  example 
of  the  Rationalistic  middle  class,  and  the  peasantry 


ITALY  55 

are  beginning  to  join  them.  Merciful  as  the  sun  of 
Italy  is  to  poverty,  the  transition  into  the  new  in- 
dustrial order  has  been  attended  with  much  suffering. 
Leo  XIII.,  in  his  later  years,  had  told  the  worker  that 
he  who  rebels  against  the  present  order  of  the  world 
rebels  against  God,  but  other  preachers  were  amongst 
them,  conjuring  up  before  them  a  vision  of  the  fairer 
earth  that  might  become  the  home  of  their  children. 
Before  i860  the  Italian  authorities  suppressed  all  study 
of  economics — suppressed  even  private  associations 
for  the  study.  To-day  Italy  is  one  of  the  foremost 
nations  of  the  world  in  it,  and  the  reaction  on  papal 
influence  is  very  great. 

Nearly  every  modern  writer  on  Italy  lays  great 
stress  on  the  recent  growth  of  Socialism.  "It  is 
possible,"  says  Mr  E.  Hutton,  by  no  means  a  sympa- 
thetic writer,  "that  the  immediate  future  of  Italy  is 
in  the  hands  of  the  Socialists,  and,  as  I  believe,  it 
is  certain  that  this  is  the  case  unless  the  king  can 
bring  himself  to  make  peace  with  the  Vatican."1 
Another  writer  who  is  antipathetic  to  Socialism,  the 
Rev.  Tony  Andre,  says :  "  Socialism  is,  in  Italy, 
a  latent  danger,  too  grave  and  too  threatening  for 
the  dlite  of  the  nation  to  do  otherwise  than  study  the 
means  of  remedy"  (p.  185).  King  and  Okey  point 
out  that  Catholicism  is  "fast  losing  ground"  in  the 
northern  towns  where  Socialism  is  strong.  At  Milan, 
"once  a  Catholic  stronghold,"  the  Catholic  vote  is 
now  less  than  one-third  of  the  Socialist  vote  at 
municipal  elections.  At  Bergamo,  a  strong  Catholic 
centre,  the  orthodox  organ  complains  that  "the 
Socialists  are  gaining  ground  and  taking  the  working 
men  and  women  from  us."2  "Socialism,"  they  con- 
clude, "barely  existed  in  Italy  ten  years  ago,"  but  is 

1  "  Italy  and  the  Italians,"  p.  54. 

2  "  Italy  To-day,"  p.  30. 


56     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

now  "the  most  living  force  in  Italian  politics."  Paul 
Ghio,  in  his  recent  "Notes  sur  L'ltalie  contemporaine," 
presses  the  same  fact,  and  adds :  "  The  authorities 
themselves  are  obliged  to  admit  that  the  Socialist 
propaganda  coincides  with  the  progress  of  the  educa- 
tion of  the  working  classes  and  with  the  amelioration 
of  their  morality."  He  quotes  a  speech  in  which  the 
Minister  of  Posts  and  Telegraphs,  Signor  Galimberti, 
speaks  with  great  praise  of  the  Socialist  efforts  to 
kindle  a  "political  conscience"  in  the  masses,  just 
after  the  Socialist  Congress  of  1902. 

The  impressions  of  travellers  must  be  read  with 
discretion,  but  I  cannot  forbear  to  relate  one  that 
gives  a  trustworthy  estimate  of  the  strength  of  Social- 
ism in  Italy.  A  few  years  ago  I  passed  through 
Genoa  on  my  way  to  Rome.  As  the  train  moved 
slowly  down  the  last  slopes,  and  I  caught  murmurs  of 
"  Genova,"  I  turned  to  the  windows.  It  was  past 
midnight,  but  not  a  single  light  illumined  the  dark 
masses  of  houses  beyond ;  one  saw  only  the  fitful 
glare  of  torches  on  fixed  bayonets,  as  the  troops 
marched  by  the  train.  I  made  my  way  through  the 
town  by  matchlight,  and  found  the  hotels  denuded  of 
all  but  indispensable  servants.  And  when  the  sun 
flashed  on  the  town  the  next  morning  I  found  it  in 
the  most  complete  idleness  imaginable.  Not  a  train 
could  be  moved  on  the  line ;  not  a  boat  dare  stir  from 
the  harbour.  Not  a  limb  would  bend  in  the  town 
without  permission.  The  very  washerwomen,  work- 
ing gaily  in  the  white  marble  basins  in  the  slums,  had 
strung  overhead  a  protesting  banner  :  "  Obbligate 
di  lavorare."  The  whole  town  lay  under  the  spell  of 
some  power  antagonistic  to  that  of  Church  or  Govern- 
ment, at  whose  20,000  troops  the  workers  smiled 
grimly.  The  Socialists  at  Milan  had  declared  a 
general  strike. 


ITALY  57 

Such  experiences,  however,  are  apt  to  lead  to  super- 
ficial and  incorrect  judgment — the  kind  of  judgment 
that  the  traveller  often  forms  as  to  the  religious 
condition  of  Italy  when  he  witnesses  great  religious 
festivals,  and  is  ignorant  that  these  are  often  main- 
tained by  the  commercial  interest  of  non-Catholics,  or 
are  mere  outbursts  of  gaiety.  Let  us  turn  rather  to 
the  more  prosaic  teaching  of  statistics.  The  Socialists 
made  their  first  appearance  at  the  polls  in  Italy  in 
1895,  when  they  registered  60,000  votes.  In  1900 
the  number  rose  to  164,000;  and  1268  communal 
councils  were  captured  by  them.  In  1904,  a  few 
weeks  after  the  general  strike  by  which  they  had 
paralysed  trade  and  so  intensely  exasperated  the 
middle  class  and  all  who  catered  to  foreign  visitors, 
they  polled  more  than  320,000  votes.1  An  increase 
of  450  per  cent,  in  nine  years  is  a  formidable  phe- 
nomenon. 

But  let  us  examine  the  figures  a  little  closer.  Until 
1904  it  had  been  papal  policy  to  forbid  the  Catholics 
to  take  part  in  the  general  elections,  but  at  the 
beginning  of  that  year  Pius  X.  urged  them  to  be  more 
sensible  of  "  their  duties  as  citizens."  This  was 
intended   and  construed   to  be   a  withdrawal    of  the 

1  The  figure  is  sometimes  quoted  with  an  insinuation  of  scepticism, 
so  I  went  through  the  returns  in  the  Giornale  oV  Italia,  and  found 
it  correct.  The  Socialists  lost  seven  seats,  in  the  general  exaspera- 
tion against  them,  but  it  is  their  total  vote  that  counts  for  our 
purpose.  There  are  twenty-seven  Socialist  deputies  in  the  Camera 
to-day,  besides  thirty-seven  Radicals  and  twenty-one  Republicans, 
who  are  equally  anticlerical.  I  may  observe  that  the  programme 
of  most  of  the  Italian  Socialists  is  merely  what  we  should  call 
"advanced  Radicalism,"  but  the  Vatican  is  irreconcilably  opposed 
to  it,  and  every  man  who  adheres  to  it  has  quitted  the  Church.  A 
recent  Italian  writer  of  distinction,  Dr  Murri,  insists  emphatically 
on  this.  Socialism,  he  says,  "  has  made  its  very  system  and  law  out 
of  opposition  to  the  Church  and  religion,"  and  "Socialism  organises 
irreligion"  (his  italics,  "  Battaglie  d'oggi,"  iii.  137). 


58     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

non  expedit  (the  direction  not  to  vote),  and  a  Catholic 
electoral  campaign  was  set  afoot.  The  result  was 
very  instructive.  In  the  first  place  the  withdrawal  of 
the  non  expedit  made  no  appreciable  difference  in  the 
number  of  voters.  Both  Liberal  and  Socialist  votes 
were  sufficiently  increased  to  account  for  the  4  per 
cent,  rise  in  the  total  number  of  votes  cast.  In  the 
next  place,  as  627  per  cent,  of  the  electorate  voted, 
and  the  proportion  is  only  63*5  at  the  municipal 
elections,  at  which  the  Catholics  were  accustomed  to 
vote,  it  is  clear  that  few  now  abstained  on  principle  ; 
though  doubtless  many  did  from  ignorance  and 
apathy.  Yet  we  find  that  the  Socialists  alone  (who 
"organise  irreligion")  numbered  a  fifth  of  the  entire 
voting  electors,  or  320,000  out  of  1,600,000.  But  as 
the  Radicals  and  Republicans  differ  from  them  only 
in  their  economic  ideal,  and  are  equally  estranged 
from  the  Church,  we  must  associate  them  with  the 
Socialists  for  the  purpose  of  our  inquiry ;  and  we  saw 
that  they  returned  more  than  twice  as  many  deputies 
to  the  Camera  as  the  Socialists  (fifty-eight  to  twenty- 
seven).  To  these  we  must  add  further  the  middle- 
class  Liberals,  who  have  generally  rejected  the  papal 
teaching  (as  Murri  fully  confesses)  and  the  whole  of 
the  Freemasons,  who  have  close  upon  200  lodges 
in  Italy.  It  will  thus  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  the 
Church  has  lost  the  allegiance  of  four-fifths  of  the 
elite  of  the  nation,  the  literate  and  enfranchised  class. 
In  this,  as  we  shall  see,  clerical  writers  like  Murri  fully 
concur. 

Let  me  put  the  situation  in  another  way,  as  it  is 
very  important  to  consider  the  question  of  literacy  or 
illiteracy  in  a  country  in  which  secession  from  Rome 
has  always  followed  upon  education,  and  the  work  of 
education  is  being  rapidly  extended.  Of  the  3 1 ,000,000 
who  are  described  as    "Catholic"    in   the    census  at 


ITALY  59 

least  ii.ooo.ooo  are  children  under  fifteen.  Of  the 
remainder  more  than  10,000,000  are  women  and  girls, 
whose  education  has  been  particularly  neglected  in 
Italy;  though  the  women  of  the  towns  are  largely 
following  their  husbands  out  of  Romanism  to-day. 
Of  the  7,000,000  or  8,000,000  men  (over  the  age  of 
twenty)  44  per  cent,  are  illiterate.  There  remain 
some  4,000,000  or  4,500,000  literate  and  mature  males. 
Of  these — if  the  analysis  of  the  voters  be  applied,  as 
seems  proper,  to  the  whole  class — the  Vatican  has 
certainly  not  the  allegiance  of  1,000,000.  Dividing 
Italy  into  zones,  as  we  must,  we  find  that  the  northern 
provinces  (which  have  40  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
population)  are  quite  dominated  by  the  anticlericals. 
The  central  provinces  may  be  said  to  be  at  least 
fairly  divided  in  clerical  and  anticlerical  influence. 
The  southern  provinces  are  solidly  Catholic.  Now, 
according  to  the  official  returns,  the  illiterates  are  only 
28*3  per  cent,  of  the  inhabitants  in  the  northern 
provinces;  51*5  in  the  central  provinces  ;  and  697  in 
the  southern.  In  Piedmont,  which  is  predominantly 
anticlerical,  the  illiterates  are  only  17*69  of  the  popula- 
tion ;  in  Calabria,  which  is  wholly  Catholic,  they  are 
7870  per  cent. 

This  is  a  sufficiently  terrible  state  of  affairs  for  the 
papacy,  but  it  is  not  the  whole  truth.  It  must  not 
be  imagined  that  the  Vatican  has  control  of  anything 
like  all  the  woman,  children  and  peasants  of  the 
country.  In  the  northern  towns  the  Socialistic  and 
other  seceders  now  generally  take  their  wives  and 
families  with  them,  and  they  are  winning  the  illiterate 
peasants  of  the  countryside.  The  Socialists,  for 
instance,  began  to  work  in  the  rural  districts  in  1897. 
At  the  Socialist  Congress  of  Bologna  in  1901  there 
were  represented  704  peasants'  leagues,  with  a  total 
membership   of    144,078.       And    the    militant    Free- 


CO     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

thought  campaign,  which  is  carried  on  from  Milan 
and  Rome,  has  also  considerable  success  among  the 
women  and  peasants,  and  provides  schools,  festivals, 
ceremonies,  etc.,  for  the  children. 

These  facts  sufficiently  explain,  not  only  the  laments 
of  Pius  X.,  but  a  large  number  of  social  incidents 
which  show  the  absurdity  of  the  current  notion  that 
Italy  is  still  Catholic  to  the  extent  of  97  per  cent. 
The  general  tone  of  the  Italian  press,  the  number  of 
anti-Catholic  journals — the  bitter  and  satirical  Asino 
of  Rome  claims  to  have  1,000,000  readers,  and  it  has 
a  rival  in  the  Papagallo,  besides  the  more  serious 
daily  Azione  (Chiasso),  Ghisleri's  daily  Ragione 
(Rome),  a  weekly  Ragione  (Lugano),  the  Tribuna, 
the  Socialist  Avanti  and  Seco/o,  and  others — and  the 
spirit  of  the  better  Italian  literature,  are  utterly  in- 
consistent with  such  a  belief.  Indeed,  incidents  are 
constantly  occurring  in  the  social  and  intellectual  life 
of  Italy  that  show  how  far  the  enfeeblement  of  the 
papacy  has  really  proceeded.  I  have  mentioned  a 
number  of  these,  but  there  is  one — the  holding  of  the 
International  Freethought  Congress  at  Rome  in  1904 
— that  will  repay  a  closer  examination. 

The  Annual  Register  for  1904  rightly  observes 
that  "the  most  noteworthy  features  of  the  year  in  the 
case  of  Italy  were  the  beginning  of  a  decided 
rapprochement  between  the  State  and  Church,  and 
birth  of  an  heir  to  the  House  of  Savoy."  It  is  well 
known  that  the  accession  of  Pius  X.  to  the  papal 
throne  gave  some  hope  that  peace  would  at  length  be 
concluded  between  the  Quirinal  and  the  Vatican,  and 
his  election  was  followed  by  many  interchanges  of 
courtesy  that  seemed  to  foreshadow  an  agreement. 
That  such  a  rapprochement  would  be  very  welcome 
to  the  Italian  Government,  in  view  of  the  spread  of 
Socialism,  needs  no  proof ;  and  Pius  X.  was  known  to 


ITALY  61 

lay  little  stress  on  the  temporal  power.  In  these 
circumstances  the  Vatican  heard  of  the  proposed 
congress,  and  issued  a  vehement  protest  against  the 
holding  of  it  at  Rome.  Yet  the  Government  did  not 
merely  ignore  the  Pope's  protest ;  it  offered  the  Italian 
Freethinkers  the  Collegio  Romano  for  their  meetings, 
it  granted  a  reduction  of  60  per  cent,  in  railway 
fares  all  over  Italy,  and  other  remarkable  privileges 
to  any  who  should  attend  the  congress,  and  it 
was  only  prevented  by  the  king's  urgent  request 
from  sending  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  to 
open  the  congress!  As  it  was,  the  Syndic  (Mayor) 
of  Rome  sent  his  Assessore  to  address  these  heated 
rebels  against  the  papacy,  and  assure  them  that  Rome 
was  (to  quote  his  words)  "a  fitting  arena  for  the  noble 
struggle  of  the  human  intellect  in  which  they  were 
engaged,"  and  that  the  issues  of  the  congress  were 
"among  the  most  important  that  can  be  conceived." 
He  gave  facilities  for  a  triumphant  procession  of 
the  8000  congressists,  with  bands  and  banners,  to  the 
breach  in  the  Porta  Pia  wall  on  the  very  anniversary 
of  the  fall  of  the  papal  power,  and  threw  open  every 
national  monument  to  the  congressists. 

As  this  congress  was  essentially  anti-Catholic,  and 
had  for  its  chief  aim  the  deliberation  of  measures  for 
the  disestablishment  and  destruction  of  the  Church  in 
all  the  Latin  countries,  the  significance  of  the  official 
attitude  cannot  be  ignored.  It  means  that  the  con- 
gress represented  a  very  strong  and  widespread  feeling 
in  the  country,  and  so  must  be  received  as  hospitably, 
to  say  the  least,  as  the  largest  Catholic  pilgrimage  to 
Rome.1     And  a  glance  at  the  preliminary  proceedings 

1  English  people  (whose  journals  generally  made  no  mention  of 
this  extraordinary  event)  may  appreciate  it  by  trying  to  imagine 
their  Government  lending  the  Imperial  Institute  for  the  holding  of 
a  Freethought  Congress,  and  the  London  County  Council  deputing 


62  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

of  the  congress  suffices  to  show  that  the  Government 
were  right  in  their  appreciation.  Some  8000  dele- 
gates attended — 4000  Italians,  2000  Spaniards,  1000 
French,  and  1000  German,  Belgian,  Austrian,  etc. — and 
400  Italian  societies  (pedagogical,  industrial,  political, 
etc.),  and  160  Masonic  lodges  sent  telegrams  or  letters 
of  adhesion  to  the  congress.  But  the  most  striking 
fact  was  that  95  Italian  municipalities  (municipi) 
— including  Aquila,  Benevento,  Bologna,  Cosenza, 
Livorno,  Mantua,  Milano,  Pavia,  Pisa,  Padua,  Orvieto, 
Rimini,  Spoleto,  Urbino,  Terni,  etc. — sent  official 
representatives,  or  official  letters  of  adhesion,  to  this 
emphatic  and  triumphant  demonstration  against  the 
Vatican.  It  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  a  more 
instructive  indication  of  the  extent  of  the  "away  from 
Rome"  movement  in  Italy.  In  a  hundred  municipal 
councils  of  northern  and  central  Italy  the  anti-Catholics 
have  so  secure  a  majority  that  they  can  officially 
support  a  proceeding  which  was  more  bitter  to  the 
Vatican  than  anything  else  in  Roman  life  for  many  a 
year. 

If  further  proof  be  desired  of  the  defection  of  the 
middle  class  and  the  artisans  of  Italy,  with  a  high 
proportion  of  their  wives  and  children,  it  will  be  found 
in  the  writings  of  the  Catholics  themselves.  I  have 
not  the  abundant  literature  of  this  kind  to  select  from 
that  I  had  in  dealing  with  France,  but  it  will  be  suffi- 
cient to  quote  an  important  work,  recently  published, 
by  Dr  Murri,  one  of  the  chief  Catholic  protagonists. 
Murri's  "  Battaglie  d'oggi"  is  weighty,  and  has  been 
issued  by  the  Societa  Italiana  Cattolica.  It  candidly 
acknowledges  throughout  that  the  situation  is  such  as 

its  chairman  to  attend.  The  character  of  the  congress  was  such 
that  the  Pope  closed  the  Vatican  for  a  week,  and  afterwards  ordered 
an  expiatory  service  in  all  the  churches  of  Rome — to  Rome's  intense 
amusement. 


ITALY  63 

I  have  described  it.  "The  educated  classes  here," 
he  says,  "are  hostile  to  us :  that  is  a  fact  of  which  it 
would  be  mischievous  to  fail  to  see  the  gravity.  It  is 
a  notorious  fact  of  modern  times "  (i.  83).  The  rise 
of  the  middle  class  has,  he  says,  culminated  in  "a 
movement  of  intense  hostility  to  the  Church  and  the 
Faith,"  and  this  spirit  is  found  "in  the  university 
professor  no  less  than  in  the  humble  reader  of  the 
Tribuna,  in  some  village  of  the  central  Apennines " 
(p.  84).  It  will  be  noted  that  where  the  foreigner 
speaks  of  "  indifference "  this  Catholic  leader  sees 
"intense  hostility";  and  that  the  "clase  colte"  in 
whom  he  finds  it  quite  predominant,  range  from  the 
scientist  to  the  literate  peasant.  The  chief  reason  for 
this  wide  dissidence  is,  he  admits,  "the  difference  in 
level  (dislevello)  between  the  clerical  culture  and  that 
of  even  the  moderately  educated  classes  of  Italy" 
(ii.  p.  9).  The  whole  literature  and  drama  of  Italy  are 
"pagan,"  he  says.  There  is  no  Christian  literature  at 
all — "only  books  fit  for  children" — and  it  "would  be 
ridiculous  to  speak  of  Christian  art."  I  may  add  that, 
since  Murri's  work  was  published,  the  one  great  writer 
the  Catholics  had,  Fogazzaro,  has  been  put  on  the 
Index  for  telling  the  curia  some  plain  truths.  The 
Catholics  need  and  desire  a  university  :  Murri  quietly 
disdains  the  ecclesiastical  colleges  at  Rome.  But 
State  and  nation  are  hostile  to  the  idea,  and  the  pro- 
gressive Catholics  are  too  few  and  poor  to  found  one.1 
This  is  Catholic  Italy,  as  seen  in  our  own  day 
by  one  of  the  most  strenuous  and  devoted  leaders  of 
the  faithful.  It  entirely  agrees  with  and  confirms  the 
estimate  I  have  formed  on  the  many  indications  I 
have  given.  All  these  indications  imply  that,  in  the 
words  of  this  Catholic  leader,  the  literate  Italians  are 

1  Murri  himself,  a  priest  of  great  authority,  and  secretary  to  an 
important  cardinal,  has  since  been  suspended ;  so  has  Minocchi. 


64     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

overwhelmingly  opposed  to  Romanism.  As  one  half 
of  the  population  over  the  age  of  six  (that  is  to  say, 
about  14,000,000)  are  now  literate,  the  reader  may 
draw  his  own  conclusion.  For  my  purpose  modesty 
is  desirable,  and  I  assess  the  loss  to  the  Vatican  in 
the  last  fifty  years  at  6,000,000.  Italian  life  and 
literature  are  unintelligible  unless  we  grant  this.1 

Nor  must  it  be  imagined  that  a  momentary  ad- 
vantage has  been  taken  of  clerical  somnolence.  Not 
only  is  the  ecclesiastical  organisation  still  vast,  power- 
ful and  wealthy,  but  it  has  made  devoted  efforts  during 
the  last  ten  years  to  arrest  the  spread  of  the  revolt. 
A  corporation  that  includes  258  archbishops  and 
bishops,  68,844  priests,  48,043  monks  and  nuns,  and 
12,129  sacristans  (besides  the  workers  in  dependent 
industries,  professions,  etc.),  with  a  safe  revenue  (half 
from  glebe  lands)  of  32,000,000  lire,  is  a  formidable 
force.  This  army,  moreover,  has  met  Socialist  ac- 
tivity with  a  remarkable  development  of  social  and 
philanthropic  work  amongst  the  peasantry.  In  spite 
of  all  its  efforts  the  leakage  increases  year  by  year. 
Its  leaders  indeed  help  the  work  of  their  opponents 
by  their  ill-advised  pronouncements.  Leo  XIII.,  who 
for  a  time  patronised  the  "  Christian  Democrats,"  came 
in  the  end  (January  1901)  to  pen  a  most  mischievous 

1  As  my  estimate  implies  the  essential  anticlericalism  of  the 
Socialists,  Radicals  and  Republicans,  I  have  sought  confirmation 
of  it  from  the  most  cultivated  and  distinguished  of  the  Italian 
Socialists,  Enrico  Ferri.  He  assures  me  that  the  Socialists  (who 
"  number  much  more  than  500,000 " — my  estimate)  are  "  irre- 
concilable adversaries  of  the  Church,"  and  that  this  applies  also 
to  "the  Radicals  and  Republicans."  The  suffrage  being  extremely 
limited  in  Italy,  he  reminds  me,  the  huge  collective  vote  of  these 
three  groups  expresses  only  a  fraction  of  their  strength  amongst 
the  people.  And  to  these  we  must  add  the  Freemasons,  the  Free- 
thinkers, the  unorganised  indifferentists,  and  the  great  bulk  of  the 
middle  class. 


ITALY  65 

declaration  on  social  work.  Pius  X.  addressed  the 
workers  from  the  start  in  the  language  of  Gregory 
XVI.  and  Pius  IX.  He  may  gain  the  Quirinal,  as 
his  predecessor  gained  the  Kaiser ;  but  he  has  lost 
the  artisans  of  Italy. 

The  present  Pope's  denunciation  of  the  moral 
condition  of  Italy  is  another  cause  of  dissatisfaction 
and  contempt.  The  morality  of  Italy  has  signally 
improved  during  these  decades  of  defection  from 
Romanism,  and  is  highest  in  the  non-Catholic  pro- 
vinces. For  the  whole  country  the  number  of  con- 
victions has  sunk  from  458,262  in  1899  to  428,634  in 
1903  ;  and  the  diminution  is  greatest  in  the  north. 
For  the  whole  country,  again,  the  proportion  of 
illegitimate  births  has  fallen  from  7*35  per  cent,  in 
1 88 1  to  6"02  per  cent,  in  1904.  The  Roman  province 
is  one  of  the  worst  in  this  regard,  having  a  percentage 
of  20'3  :  the  northern  provinces  are  the  best.  There 
is  still  an  extraordinary  laxity  amongst  the  Catholic 
population,  from  the  prelate  to  the  peasant.  I  found 
a  curiously  obtuse  moral  sense  amongst  the  peasantry 
of  a  solidly  Catholic  district  in  the  south,  where  I  had 
the  advantage  of  observing  them  through  the  eyes  of 
residents  (friendly  to  them)  who  have  known  them 
for  years.  On  the  other  hand  a  writer,  not  hostile  to 
Catholicism,  in  The  Church  Quarterly  (October  1902), 
tells  that  he  heard  an  Italian  prelate  lamenting  that 
a  certain  distinguished  cardinal  had  not  received  the 
tiara  at  the  last  conclave.  When  the  writer  pro- 
tested to  the  Italian  that  the  cardinal  was  a  man 
of  "conspicuous  immorality"  the  prelate  impatiently 
exclaimed:  "You  Anglicans  seem  to  think  there 
is  no  virtue  but  chastity."  I  myself  heard  it 
familiarly  stated,  as  a  matter  of  common  knowledge, 
by  officials  at  Rome  that  the  cardinal  in  question 
(whom    I    easily    recognise)    kept    a    mistress    at    a 


66     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

villa  not  many  miles  from  the  Vatican  to  which  he 
aspired. 

Thus  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  suffered  in 
Italy  the  loss  of  at  least  a  fifth  of  its  adherents,  and 
those  the  more  alert  and  thoughtful  part  of  the  nation. 
King  and  Okey  conclude  their  impartial  inquiry  on 
the  point  of  religion  by  saying  that  "probably  the 
great  majority  of  the  peasants  should  still  be  counted 
Catholics."  That  will,  doubtless,  be  the  verdict  of 
every  neutral  observer :  it  is,  in  effect,  the  verdict  of 
militant  Catholic  priests  like  Murri.  But  the  peasants 
also  secede  rapidly.  In  twenty  years,  in  an  ever- 
increasing  population,  the  clerical  army  has  shrunk 
from  76,560  to  68,844,  and  in  the  north  at  least  the 
priests  lament  that  their  chapels  are  half  empty. 
"Decay"  is  writ  large  over  its  whole  action  and 
organisation.  There  is  only  one  possible  way  in 
which  the  Italian  Church  can  arrest  the  decay  in  some 
measure.  Its  fulminations  have  touched  so  lightly 
the  mind  of  Italy  for  forty  years  that  they  have 
lost  even  the  interest  of  melodrama.  Its  social  and 
philanthropic  work  has  failed  to  compete  with  the  glow- 
ing phrases  of  the  Socialist  orators.  It  must  enter 
into  a  political  alliance  with  the  Ouirinal.  As  in 
Germany,  rulers  and  statesmen  will  welcome  its  co- 
operation in  the  checking  of  Socialism  and  Radical- 
ism by  spiritual  menaces  to  the  peasant — if  the  Vatican 
is  sagacious  enough  to  offer  the  alliance  before  its 
power  over  the  peasant  is  too  seriously  undermined. 
Individualist  sceptics  could,  no  doubt,  be  induced  to 
suspend  their  objections  to  clericalism  (as  in  Spain) 
and  unite  with  the  Church  against  a  common  enemy. 
There  may  be  a  concentration  which  will  break  up 
some  of  the  older  groups. 

In  estimating  the  possible  issue  for  the  Church  of 
this  alliance,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  Italy 


ITALY  67 

moderate  Socialism  is  not  a  mere  artisan  movement. 
It  has  leaders  and  adherents  amongst  the  most 
cultured  writers  and  most  learned  professors  in  the 
country.  It  is  not  many  years  since  we  were  startled 
to  hear  that  D'Annunzio  himself  had  publicly  associ- 
ated with  them.  It  has  long  counted  amongst  its 
disciples  such  men  of  science  and  letters  as  Lombroso, 
De  Amicis,  Ferri,  Ferrero,  Graf,  Guerrini,  Ghisleri, 
Pascoli,  Chiaruggi,  Batelli,  Pantaleoni.  This  means 
a  large  following  amongst  the  cultured.  The  struggle 
will  not  be  merely  one  of  peasants  and  artisans 
against  the  middle  and  upper  class.  Further,  the 
Church  is,  as  I  write,  blindly  eviscerating  itself  of 
its  own  cultured  elements.  Murri  is  suspended, 
Minocchi  excommunicated,  Fogazzaro  on  the  Index. 
The  "modernists"  defy  the  Vatican  with  their  famous 
Programina,  and  merely  change  the  titles  of  their  pro- 
hibited magazines.  The  Italian  Church  will  soon  be 
a  body  of  20,000,000  illiterates  and  children,  controlled 
by  an  army  of  200,000  clerics  and  dependent  laymen. 
But  the  light  breaks  even  on  the  mind  of  the  peasants, 
and,  when  they  awake,  they  will  join  the  great 
rebellion. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE  LATIN   WORLD— SPAIN  AND  PORTUGAL 

THE  serious  inquirer  into  the  fortunes  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  in  divers  countries  invari- 
ably approaches  each  section  of  his  subject 
with  a  fresh  optimism.  He  has  probably  set  out  in 
his  investigation  under  the  influence  of  that  belief 
in  its  constant  progress  which  is  pressed  on  him  from 
every  side.  The  moment  he  begins  to  reflect,  how- 
ever, events  so  clamant  as  the  recent  revolution  in 
France  bring  over  his  mind  the  first  shade  of  sceptic- 
ism, and  he  soon  finds  that  the  French  Church  is 
but  the  crumbling  ruin  of  the  fabric  on  which  the 
philosophers  of  the  eighteenth  century  led  the  first 
assault.  But  he  is  assured  that  the  failure  is  purely 
local,  and  that  beyond  the  Alps  Catholicism  still  sees 
a  whole  nation  bow  in  awe  before  the  presentation  of 
its  solemn  mysteries.  He  passes  to  Italy  :  and  again 
he  meets  the  Voltairean  scoffer,  the  intellectual  critic, 
and  the  democratic  rebel.  He  finds  Italy  spurning 
the  rule  of  the  Vatican  in  ominous  proportion  to  its 
mental  development,  and  few  but  the  dense,  sensual 
peasants  of  the  southern  provinces  really  submissive 
to  the  papal  commands.  Then  Roman  prelates  tell 
him  that  the  real  home  of  Catholicism,  the  land  from 
which  the  Gospel  will  again  set  out  on  its  triumphal 
march,  is  in  the  Iberian  peninsula  and  South  America ; 
and  he  takes  up  the  thread  of  his  inquiry  with  a 
stronger  prepossession  than  ever  in  favour  of  Rome. 

Deferring  to  the  next  chapter  the  inquiry  into  the 
condition  of  Romanism  in  Spanish  America,  we  have 

68 


SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL  69 

now  to  investigate  its  fortunes  in  Spain  and  Portugal. 
It  need  hardly  be  pointed  out  that  the  position  is  in 
many  respects  exceptional.  A  recent  German  writer 
has  insisted  that  the  Iberian  peninsula  is,  psychically, 
"a  bit  of  Africa."  One  of  the  most  sagacious  and 
philosophic  observers  of  modern  Spain  and  Portugal, 
he  concludes  that  in  the  peninsula  we  have  one  of  the 
most  singular  phases  of  the  religious  struggle  of  our 
time :  a  semi-Oriental  people  struggling  against  modern 
ideas,  not  so  much  out  of  attachment  to  the  religion 
they  assail,  but  because  they  threaten  the  very  basis 
of  its  life,  its  quietism.1  However,  we  have  a  healthy 
distrust  of  the  too  philosophic  impressions  of  German 
travellers,  and  no  doubt  Herr  Passarge  makes  too 
much  of  the  former  presence  of  the  Arab  in  Spain. 
The  situation  is  peculiar  enough  without  regarding  any 
theory  of  racial  inheritance — peculiar  in  geography,  in 
history,  and  in  cultural  value.  Only  in  the  Catholic 
south  of  Italy  or  America  can  we  find  equally  dense 
and  general  ignorance.  Of  the  Portuguese  78*6  per 
cent,  are  unable  to  read  :  of  the  Spanish  68  per  cent. 
And  nowhere  else  in  Europe  can  we  find  an  equal 
exhaustion  from  warfare,  revolution  and  persecution. 
Yet  Passarge,  like  nearly  every  other  writer  on 
Spain  and  Portugal,  bears  witness  to  the  advanced 
decomposition  of  the  Church  of  Rome  in  the  Peninsula. 
It  is  "  full  of  superficial  Freethought,"  he  says,  from  his 
Protestant  point  of  view.  The  notion  that  the  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  are  still  solidly  Catholic  is  as  mythical 
as  we  found  the  same  idea  to  be  in  regard  to  Italy. 
Vast  corporations  of  clergy  and  religious  are  fighting 
the  growth  of  heresy :  ruling  powers  have  their  own 
reasons  for  permitting  the  abnormal  illiteracy,  and 
encouraging  the  intolerant  bigotry,  that  check  its 
progress ;  yet  Spain  and  Portugal  are  smouldering  with 
1  "Aus  Spanien  und  Portugal,"  by  L.  Passarge. 


70     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

rebellion  against  Rome,  and  any  decade  in  the  first 
half  of  the  twentieth  century  the  gust  may  set  in  that 
will  raise  a  flame  only  second  in  magnitude  to  that  we 
have  witnessed  in  France,  and  probably  more  intense 
and  unsparing.  Millions  have  completely  abandoned 
their  allegiance  to  the  Vatican,  and  millions  more  are 
well  on  the  way  to  abandon  it.  Of  this  we  shall  see 
abundant  proof  in  the  course  of  the  present  chapter. 
Educated  Spain  is  no  longer  Catholic  :  illiterate  Spain 
rebels  with  the  first  tincture  of  letters. 

SPAIN 

The  superficial  traveller  who  appraises  the  religious 
life  of  Spain  by  the  processions  and  ceremonies  he  has 
witnessed  at  Seville  usually  has  little  difficulty  in 
securing  the  assent  of  his  reader.  Indeed,  it  may  be 
confessed  at  once  that  a  peculiar  discretion  is  needed 
in  reading  accounts  of  Spanish  life.  Of  two  friends 
of  mine  who  know  Spain  well,  one,  an  American, 
who  has  lived  there  for  more  than  a  decade,  affirms 
that  the  country  is  ■  still  purely  medieval  in  regard 
to  religion  ;  the  other,  a  highly  cultivated  Spaniard, 
avers  that  only  25  per  cent,  of  his  countrymen  go  to 
church,  and  that  the  greater  part  even  of  these  have 
no  real  religious  belief.  Of  two  writers  on  Spain 
that  I  consult,  one,  an  English  traveller,  suggests 
that  95  per  cent,  of  the  Spaniards  are  sincere 
Roman  Catholics  :  the  other,  a  devout  and  cultivated 
Spanish  Catholic,  says,  ''there  is  more  indifference  and 
practical  atheism  in  Spain  than  in  any  other  country 
in  Europe!"  And  our  encyclopaedias  and  other 
works  of  reference,  with  their  usual  irresponsibility 
on  this  point,  assign  17,500,000  out  of  the  18,000,000 
of  Spain  to  the  rule  of  the  Vatican. 

The  course  of  this  chapter  will  amply  show  that  the 


SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL  71 

more  optimistic  writers  have  either  had  their  experi- 
ence restricted  to  some  exceptional  outlying  district 
— as  in  the  case  of  my  American  friend — or  have  only 
glanced  at  the  surface  of  Spain's  life — as  in  the  case 
of  the  English  traveller  (to  whom  I  return  later). 
But  in  order  to  approach  the  examination  with  a  fitting- 
sense  of  proportion  we  must  glance  at  the  history  of 
religion  in  Spain  since  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  If  the  traveller  in  Spain  were  equipped  with 
this  knowledge,  he  would  be  less  disposed  to  build 
on  isolated  occurrences  and  superficial  ceremonies  ; 
but  he  is  very  rarely  acquainted  with  that  remarkable 
story. 

To  a  point  the  story  is  the  same  as  in  the  case  of 
France  and  Italy.  French  scepticism  found  an  easy, 
if  restricted,  ground  in  Spain.  Educated  Spaniards 
saw  their  impoverished  country  fastened  on  by  a 
parasitic  tribe  of  nearly  140,000  priests,  nuns  and 
sacristans  (to  10,000,000  people),  and  welcomed  the 
Voltairean  estimate  of  their  worth.  But  the  clergy 
were  content  to  fence  off  these  few  reading  folk  from 
the  masses,  and  knew  that  the  vast  illiterate  body  of 
the  people  were  ignorant  of  the  meaning,  and  dis- 
trusted the  very  sound,  of  such  words  as  reform  and 
progress.  The  French  invasion  smoothed  the  way 
for  more  French  literature,  and  the  easy  rule — or 
virtual  rule — of  Godoy,  who  was  "  bitterly  opposed 
by  the  ecclesiastics  and  the  mob  "  (says  Major  Hume), 
encouraged  the  spread  of  culture  and  facilitated  that 
of  heresy.  The  devastation  wrought  by  Napoleon's 
troops  in  the  Peninsula,  and  the  seething  hatred  of 
everything  French  that  it  evoked,  naturally  aided 
the  cause  of  the  clergy.  But  by  the  time  of 
the  fall  of  Napoleon  Liberalism  was  fully  born 
in  Spain,  and  prepared  to  enter,  as  in  the  other 
Latin   countries,    into   the   long   war  with  clericalism 


72  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

and  absolutism.  From  that  time  onward  there  has 
been  a  powerful  body  of  Radical  heretics  in  the 
country. 

But  the  Spanish  Liberals  had  an  even  more  difficult 
task  than  those  of  Italy.  They  had  to  deal  with  the 
most  brutal  and  unscrupulous  of  the  restored  rulers 
after  1814  ;  they  had  one  of  the  richest  and  most 
powerful  clerical  corporations  in  Europe  to  combat ; 
and  they  had  about  them  a  people  so  dark  in  mind, 
and  so  steeped  in  medieval  feeling,  that  it  could 
welcome  a  tyrant  with  the  cry  :  "  Down  with  liberty! 
Hurrah  for  chains ! "  The  first  Spanish  Cortes  (of 
recent  times)  was  set  up  in  18 10.  The  lawyers  and 
literary  men  who  abounded  in  it  were  very  largely 
imbued  with  French  ideas,  and,  though  they  swore 
to  tolerate  no  faith  but  Catholicism  in  the  land,  they 
abolished  the  Inquisition,  curtailed  the  power  of  the 
clergy,  and  framed  a  constitution.  But  the  national 
hatred  of  France  was  rising  year  by  year,  the  monks 
and  clergy  were  working  at  fever-heat,  the  revolu- 
tionary wave  was  ebbing  all  over  Europe,  and,  in 
the  general  reaction,  Ferdinand  returned  to  Spain. 
How  he  duped  the  Liberals,  and  tore  up  the  con- 
stitution he  had  promised  to  maintain,  is  common 
matter  of  history.  Briefly,  the  "  white  terror " 
assumed  a  complexion  in  Spain  that  shocked  even 
Louis  XVIII.  and  Metternich.  With  swift  and 
savage  treachery,  with  the  enthusiastic  support  of 
the  monks  and  clergy,  he  turned  on  all  who  be- 
trayed the  slightest  leaning  to  Liberalism.  The 
Inquisition  was  restored,  and  a  great  network  of 
additional  spies  was  spread  over  the  country. 
The  prominent  Liberals  were  at  once  flung  into 
prison,  or  barbarously  executed,  or  driven  from 
the  land ;  and  then  began  a  minute  and  merciless 
inquisition  into  men's  opinions.     The  state  of  things 


SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL  73 

at  Madrid  was  akin  to  that  at  Paris  in  1793.  "A 
premium  was  put  upon  information,  and  a  secret  police 
penetrated  into  every  household  in  order  to  discover 
the  secrets  of  consciences  and  to  purge  Spain  of  every 
Liberal  element.  Neither  age,  sex,  virtue  nor 
poverty  afforded  protection  against  these  terrible 
commissions  :  wealth  alone  sometimes  saved  one  from 
death."1  Great  numbers  of  men  of  culture  and 
character  were  executed ;  their  wives  and  daughters, 
delicate  Spanish  ladies,  were  sent  to  herd  with  the 
criminals  in  the  galleys  for  not  denouncing  their 
husbands  or  fathers.  Over  the  provinces  a  "  Society 
of  the  Exterminating  Angel,"  having  relations  with 
all  the  leading  bishops  and  all  the  monasteries,  carried 
the  terror  in  its  most  ruthless  form.  The  death 
penalty  was  passed  against  any  Spaniard  who  should 
dare  even  to  mention  the  constitution ;  the  bare 
possession  of  an  English  Liberal  newspaper  was 
punished  with  ten  years'  imprisonment  in  the  deadly 
jails  of  Spain.  Yet — it  is  well  to  remember  this  when 
one  is  tempted  to  speak  of  the  innate  indolence  of 
the  Spaniard — Liberalism  triumphed  after  six  years 
of  this  appalling  repression,  and  again  in  1822  ;  and 
it  needed  the  intervention  of  a  large  French  army 
to  restore  Ferdinand  to  power.  In  spite  of  French 
counsels  of  moderation  he  at  once  recommenced 
the  terror.  "  Modern  civilisation  has  seen  no  such 
instance  of  brutal,  blind  ferocity  as  that  which  followed 
the  arrival  of  Fernando  in  Madrid.  ...  It  was 
sufficient  for  a  person  to  have  belonged  to  the  militia, 
or  even  to  be  related  to  a  known  Liberal,  for  the 
most  inhuman  tortures  to  be  inflicted  upon  him  by 
the  unrestrained  populace.  .  .  .  Not  even  the  most 
bloodthirsty  wretches  of  the  French  Reign  of  Terror 
equalled  the  President  of  the  Military  Commission  at 
1  G.  Hubbard,  "  Histoire  contemporaine  de  l'Espagne." 


74     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Madrid."1  Hubbard  puts  it  that  "under  the  ministry 
of  Victor  Saez,  the  king's  confessor,  the  hangman 
seemed  to  be  the  most  active  instrument  of  power." 
"The  Cambridge  History"  (vol.  x.)  observes  that 
"the  reaction  was  more  violent,  blind  and  cruel  than 
in  1 8 14."  And  the  revival  of  Liberal  ideas  in  Europe 
in  1830  led  to  fresh  brutality,  so  that  the  repressive 
period  lasted  until  the  death  of  Ferdinand  in  1833. 

A  glance  at  this  fearful  chapter  in  the  history  of 
modern  Spain  is  essential  for  a  proper  understanding 
of  the  religious  situation  to-day — indeed,  of  the  whole 
predicament  of  Spain.  From  18 14  to  1833  many 
thousands  of  the  more  cultivated  and  energetic 
Spaniards  were  executed  or  banished,  and  what  is 
euphemistically  called  its  "quietism"  was  brutally 
impressed  on  the  Spanish  character.  Culture  was 
proscribed,  and  the  civilisation  of  the  land  was  put 
back  half-a-century.  Only  two  journals  were  published 
at  Madrid,  and  they  merely  reflected  the  temper  of 
the  despot.  Colleges  and  universities  were  closed ; 
and  the  great  schools  of  bullfighting  appeared  in 
their  stead.  To  have  passed  through  twenty  years 
of  such  a  rule  as  Ferdinand's  is  a  sufficient  explana- 
tion of  the  comparative  weakness  of  the  anti- Roman 
movement  in  Spain  to-day ;  nor — the  reader  will 
learn  with  surprise — is  the  reign  of  brutal  repression 
yet  over  in  the  country.  But  I  will  touch  briefly 
the  later  story  of  anticlericalism  in  Spain  before  I 
enlarge  on  the  present  situation. 

The  Carlist  disruption  was  the  second  factor  in  the 
exhaustion  of  the  nation,  but  it  indirectly  brought 
relief  to  Liberalism  and  helped  to  spread  anticlerical 

1 "  Modern  Spain,"  p.  256,  by  Major  Hume,  who  will  not  be 
suspected  of  bias  against  the  clergy.  He  is  well  within  the  mark 
when  he  observes  that  the  monks  and  clergy  were  "responsible 
for  much  of  this  atrocity." 


SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL  75 

ideas  amongst  the  people.  By  one  of  those  tragic 
errors  that  marked  Rome's  conduct  in  the  Latin 
countries  throughout  the  nineteenth  century  the 
clergy  sided  with  Don  Carlos,  the  late  king's  brother, 
who  promised  to  continue  the  methods  of  Ferdinand 
if  the  crown  were  secured  for  him.  The  Liberals 
therefore  found  themselves  in  the  novel  position  of 
supporting  the  legitimate  sovereign  against  a  usurper 
and  a  rebellious  clergy.  Greatly  as  the  queen's  party 
disliked  them,  the  withdrawal  of  the  nobles  and  the 
stricter  Conservatives  to  Don  Carlos  prepared  the 
way  for  a  Liberal  majority  in  the  Cortes  and  the 
passing  of  anticlerical  measures.  Even  the  mass 
of  the  people  were  now  turning  against  the  monks 
and  learning  to  spell  the  word  progress.  The  Jesuits 
and  the  monks  were  suppressed,  the  press  was 
liberated,  and  the  anticlerical  propaganda  proceeded 
briskly. 

From  1833  until  1873  we  have  a  series  of  heated 
and  revolutionary  conflicts  between  the  Liberal  and 
Conservative  elements,  with  alternating  victory,  but 
the  anticlerical  cause  steadily  gains.  The  revolu- 
tionary wave  of  1838  washed  over  the  Pyrenees  to 
some  extent,  and  again  the  Conservatives  made  a 
drastic  clearance  of  heretics,  political  and  religious. 
The  Liberals  returned  to  power  in  1854,  framed  a 
new  constitution,  and,  after  granting  compensation, 
sold  the  Church  lands.  This  provoked  a  reaction  and 
counter-revolution  in  1856;  but  the  Liberals  returned 
in  1858,  and  were  driven  out  again  in  1866,  when  a 
fresh  persecution  was  set  afoot.  Decrees  were  passed, 
says  Major  Hume,  "such  as  would  have  shamed 
Ferdinand  VII."  and  the  most  shameless  tyranny 
was  rampant  once  more.  Yet  within  two  years 
the  various  progressive  bodies  united,  and  effected  a 
successful  revolution.      For  a  time  they  tried   a  new 


76     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

dynasty  in  Amadeo  of  Savoy,  but  his  foreign  ways 
displeased,  and  in  1873  the  Cortes  proclaimed  a 
republic  by  258  votes  to  32.  It  was  wrecked  by  the 
army,  and  Alfonso  XII.  was  placed  on  the  throne. 
For  some  years  the  godson  of  the  Pope  kept  the 
Liberals  in  check,  though  he  made  only  slight  con- 
cessions to  the  reactionaries,  but  from  1880  onward 
Liberals  and  Conservatives  have  alternated  in  power  ; 
though  not  so  much  by  the  will  of  the  electorate  as 
by  mutual  agreement  to  divide  the  spoils  of  politics. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  brief  sketch  of  the  history 
of  anticlericalism  in  Spain  disposes  one  to  examine 
the  present  position  of  the  Church  with  greater  dis- 
cretion. For  nearly  a  hundred  years  there  has  been 
a  powerful  body  of  cultivated  Freethinkers  and  Free- 
masons in  Spain.  They  have  attained  to  power  in 
the  Cortes  time  after  time,  though  the  consciousness 
that  the  vast  majority  of  the  nation,  totally  illiterate 
and  fanatically  Catholic,  were  ready  at  any  moment 
to  be  fired  by  priestly  oratory  set  limits  to  their 
anticlerical  legislation.  In  spite  of  the  fearful  per- 
secutions that  were  directed  against  them  during  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  nearly  10,000  Spaniards 
described  themselves  as  "  Freethinkers  "  at  the  census 
of  1877,  and  it  was  well  known  that  these  were  only 
the  bolder  members  of  a  very  much  more  numerous 
body.  An  impartial  German  authority,  Wilkomm, 
declared  that  indifferentism  was  general  in  Spain  in 
the  early  eighties,  and  that  religious  bigotry  was 
known  only  in  the  remoter  provinces.  No  one, 
indeed,  disputes  that  the  Church,  with  its  opposition 
to  progress  and  education,  its  Inquisition  and  its 
sanction,  if  not  encouragement,  of  the  most  brutal 
persecution  of  its  critics,  had,  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago,  lost  the  allegiance  of  more  than  half  the  culti 
vated  men  of  Spain. 


SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL  77 

Curiously  enough,  the  only  serious  difference  of 
opinion  is  in  regard  to  the  fortunes  of  the  Church  in 
the  last  twenty  years,  when  it  has  suffered  such  heavy 
losses  in  France  and  Italy.  Mr  Houghton  (article 
"  Spain "  in  the  recent  supplementary  edition  of  the 
Ency.  Brit.)  affirms  that  Wilkomm's  estimate  of  the 
religious  condition  of  Spain  in  1886  is  by  no  means 
applicable  to  the  Spain  of  to-day.  He  fancies  that 
under  the  moderate  rule  of  Alfonso  XII.  and  under 
the  Regency  the  Church  has  recovered  most  of  the 
ground  she  lost  between  1868  and  1877.  But  the 
number  of  professed  Freethinkers  was  much  higher 
at  the  census  of  1887  than  it  had  been  in  1877, 
and  Mr  Houghton  himself  adds  that  they  "  were 
known  to  be  much  more  numerous  [than  the  figures 
suggest],  especially  in  the  middle  and  lower  classes." 
In  point  of  fact  the  number  of  seceders  has  grown 
enormously  in  the  last  three  decades,  and  to-day 
serious  Spanish  Catholics  are  appalled  at  the  situation. 

Let  me  first  of  all  point  out  one  or  two  features  of 
Spanish  life  that  account  for  the  comparative  reticence 
of  seceders  from  the  Church,  and  add  difficulty  to  our 
inquiry.  The  first  of  these  is  that  the  age  of  bloody 
persecution  is  not  yet  over  in  Spain.  That  is  a 
serious  statement  to  make  when  authorities  like  Major 
Hume  declare  that  "  the  day  of  religious  persecution 
and  tyrannical  priestcraft  is  past  for  ever,  and  Catholic 
Spain  is  as  free  as  Protestant  England"  ("Modern 
Spain,"  p.  xi.).  Now,  even  in  Madrid,  the  Protestants 
are  less  free  than  Catholics  were  in  London  more 
than  a  century  ago.  They  are  not  allowed  to  ad- 
vertise their  services,  or  to  make  any  official  appear- 
ance in  public.  As  late  as  1894  the  opening  of  the 
Protestant  chapel  of  Madrid  caused  an  alarming  out- 
break, and  had  to  be  postponed  for  months.  But 
this  treatment  of  English  residents  is  nothing  to  the 


78  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

treatment  accorded  to  native  rebels.  "  Spanish 
codes,"  says  Mr  Houghton,  "still  contain  many  severe 
penalties,  including  fines,  correctional  prison  and 
penal  servitude,  for  delicts  against  the  State  religion, 
as  writers  and  journalists  frequently  discover  when  they 
give  offence  to  the  ecclesiastical  authorities"  (Ency.  Brit. : 
"  Spain  "  ).  That  Mr  Houghton  is  right  I  have  found 
ample  proof.  I  have  been  informed  by  a  friend  who 
lived  for  many  years  at  Santa  Cruz,  and  was  perfectly 
familiar  with  the  people,  that  not  many  years  ago  a 
young  Spanish  journalist  of  that  town  was  put  into 
prison,  without  trial,  for  anticlerical  observations.  He 
was  personally  known  to  my  friend,  who  declares  that 
he  was  transferred  to  a  Spanish  fortress,  where  the 
horrible  conditions  set  up  consumption,  and  he  was  at 
length  discharged — without  a  shadow  of  legal  process 
— to  die  a  few  weeks  later.  Except  in  regard  to  the 
death,  the  story  was  confirmed  to  me  in  every  detail 
by  a  well-informed  Spanish  journalist.  In  outlying 
parts  of  Spain  no  form  of  trial  is  even  affected  in  such 
cases.  A  word  from  the  bishop  to  the  civil  governor 
is  enough. 

But  offences  of  this  kind  are  now  usually  hidden 
under  a  false  charge,  and  that,  no  doubt,  accounts 
for  Major  Hume's  impression.  A  case  of  the  most 
flagrant  and  horrible  character  occurred  at  Barcelona 
so  late  as  1896.  An  isolated  Anarchist  outrage  in 
1895  had  led  to  the  torture  of  many  suspects,  and, 
on  the  confessions  wrung  from  these  in  the  delirium 
of  the  most  exquisite  pain  that  could  be  devised,  a 
number  of  innocent  men  were  executed.  This  led 
to  fresh  outrages  in  1894  and  1896.  After  the  latter, 
military  law  was  proclaimed,  and  some  three  or  four 
hundred  men  of  all  shades  of  political  opinion  (except 
Conservative)  were  driven  to  the  terrible  fortress  of 
Montjuich.     There  were  few  violent  Anarchists  among 


SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL  79 

them.  They  were  mostly  Republicans,  Socialists, 
Freethinkers  and  Freemasons ;  but  all  ordinary 
judicial  forms  were  suspended,  and  the  clergy  and 
governing  class  took  occasion  to  punish  all  who 
were  obnoxious  to  them.  With  one  exception — 
and  he  was  a  Carlist,  and  brother  of  an  Anarchist 
— they  were  all  antic lericals.  The  Director  of 
the  Polytechnic  Academy,  Professor  Tarrida  del 
Marmol  (professor  at  the  School  of  Arts  and  Crafts, 
cousin  of  the  Marquis  of  Mont-Roig),  was  amongst 
the  number,  though  he  escaped,  through  influence, 
after  six  weeks  in  the  horrible  jail.  His  sole  offence 
was  anticlerical  propaganda.  Of  the  others  many 
were  submitted  to  tortures  that  seem  not  to  have 
occurred  even  in  the  medieval  imagination.  Cords 
were  tied  on  their  genital  organs,  and,  under  the 
control  of  Spanish  officers,  they  were  subjected  to  a 
pain  as  intense  as  it  was  repulsive.  Some  were  fed 
for  several  days  on  salt  fish,  and  refused  a  drop  of 
water.  They  were  scourged  until  their  bodies  ran  all 
over  with  blood.  They  were  prevented  from  sleeping 
or  resting  for  several  days  and  nights  by  the  whips  of 
the  soldiers  and  jailers.  They  were  flung  into  the 
sea,  time  after  time,  and  only  rescued  at  the  point  of 
death.  And  the  torture  only  ceased  when  they  would 
sign  a  paper  declaring  that  some  obnoxious  anticlerical 
or  political  heretic  was  "an  Anarchist."  Europe  was, 
of  course,  informed  that  they  were  all  "Anarchists."1 

1  See  the  full  account  in  Prof.  Tarrida  del  Marmol's  "  Inquisiteurs 
Modernes."  It  may  help  the  reader  to  understand  modern  Spain  if 
I  say  that  Anarchists  are  very  numerous  in  the  country,  but  these 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  thrower  of  bombs.  Their  aim  is 
the  peaceful  propaganda  of  the  political  and  economic  ideal  of 
Prince  Krapotkin  and  Professor  Reclus.  However,  only  a  fraction 
of  the  Barcelona  "  Anarchists  "  belonged  even  to  this  school.  Nearly 
all  of  them  abhorred  outrage. 

More  recently  still  (1906-1907)  a  case  has  occurred  at  Madrid 


80     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

So  much  for  the  "freedom"  of  modern  Spain.  It 
is  a  country  where  you  do  best  to  respect  the  clergy 
externally,  whatever  you  may  think  in  your  own  mind. 
But  the  times  are  changing,  and  there  is  already 
a  wider  network  of  anticlerical  societies  spread  over 
Spain  than  in  any  other  country. 

The  second  feature  I  would  point  out  is  that  in 
Spain  the  religious  issue  is  much  obscured  by  political 
complications.  Lower  depths  of  political  Liberalism 
have  revealed  themselves — Socialism,  Republicanism, 
Anarchy,  etc. — and  this  has  led  to  a  tendency  of 
the  historic  anticlerical  Liberal  party  to  co-operate 
with  the  moderate  Conservatives,  and  to  compromise 
on  religious  questions.  I  have  drawn  no  conclusion 
— as  I  did  in  the  case  of  France — from  the  frequency 
with  which  the  Liberals  are  "returned  to  power."  It 
is  notorious  that  in  Spain  there  is  ''no  sincerity  or 
reality  in  the  pretended  antagonism  of  the  political 
parties,"  as  Major  Hume  puts  it.  Assuredly  there  is 
an  antagonism  of  principles  in  regard  to  the  Church, 
but  the  elections  are  shamelessly  controlled  by  the 
party  in  power,  and  changes  of  government  are  due 
to  a  genial  understanding  between  them  that  if  either 
party  is  kept  out  of  office  too  long  it  will  give 
trouble.  Both  parties  now  face  a  rising  body  of  more 
advanced  thought  and  a  serious  menace  to  their 
system,  so  that  the  political  divisions,  once  so  clearly 

itself.  A  cultivated  and  high-minded  Spaniard,  F.  Ferrer  Guardia, 
was  arrested  in  connection  with  the  attempt  on  the  lives  of  the  king 
and  queen.  The  Madrid  magistrate  wanted  to  dismiss  the  charge 
as  frivolous,  but  the  procurator  fiscal  intervened,  and  for  twelve 
months  pressed  for  sentence  of  death  (by  garroting)  against  Ferrer, 
who  remained  in  jail.  Ferrer's  real  offence  was  that  he  had  spent 
his  life  and  fortune  in  erecting  secular  schools  in  Spain,  as  the 
procurator  not  obscurely  hinted.  He  is  a  man  of  culture  and  of 
great  humanity,  and  is  as  notoriously  opposed  to  violence  as 
Tolstoy. 


SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL  81 

religious,  now  throw  less  light  on  the  subject  of  our 
inquiry. 

The  cultivated  middle  class  remains  Rationalistic, 
but  it  may  conceal  or  ignore  the  clerical  issue  when 
it  has  more  material  interests  to  defend  against  the 
anticlerical  Socialists  and  Republicans.  This  circum- 
stance is  of  vital  importance  in  seeking  expressions 
of  dissent  from  Rome  in  modern  Spain.  Just  as  we 
saw  that  the  Liberal  bourgeois  of  France  were  led  by 
proceedings  of  the  Communists  in  1871  to  moderate 
their  anticlericalism  and  coquet  with  the  Church,  so 
in  Spain  to-day  the  rise  of  a  deep  Radicalism,  with 
its  menace  to  their  economic  interests,  imposes  some 
reticence  on  the  Liberals.  Their  consciousness  of 
the  corruption  of  their  political  machinery,  which  the 
Extremists  fiercely  assail,  increases  this  tendency ; 
and  as  the  Church  of  Rome  is  inveterately  opposed 
to  these  new  democratic  movements,  and  they  to  her, 
we  must  expect  a  certain  amount  of  compromise  on 
religious  issues. 

Yet  these  facts  only  enhance  the  significance  of  the 
many  indications  one  finds  of  the  condition  of  Spain. 
As  in  the  case  of  Italy,  statistics  of  churchgoing 
and  Easter  communions  are  not  available.  Nor  does 
the  strength  of  Protestantism  help  us  much.  In  the 
Latin  countries  it  makes  little  and  laborious  progress. 

The  German  pastor  at  Madrid  estimates  the  total 
number  of  Protestants  in  Spain  at  12,000,  and  these 
are  mostly  foreigners.  Professor  Unamuno  is  en- 
deavouring to  lead  native  religion  into  a  form  akin 
to  Lutheranism,  but  he  has  few  followers  in  this 
respect.  However  the  whole  literature  of  the  subject 
testifies  that  the  men  of  Spain  have  for  the  most 
abandoned  the  Church,  and  that  to-day  their  wives 
and  families  often  accompany  them.  After  a  careful 
search  amongst  writers  on  Spain,  in  Spanish,  French, 


82     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

German  and  English,  I  do  not  find  one  of  any  weight 
to  support  the  statement  that  Mr  Houghton  makes  in 
the  supplement  to  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica.  One 
popular  English  writer,  Mr  Bart  Kennedy  ("  Tramp 
in  Spain"),  does  indeed  strongly  confirm  it;  but  as 
Mr  Kennedy  acknowledges — nay,  boasts — that  he  set 
out  on  his  short  tour  through  Spain  with  no  other 
equipment  than  a  revolver,  a  passport  and  a  complete 
ignorance  of  the  language,  most  people  will  not 
wonder  that  he  came  to  the  singular  conclusion  that 
the  Spanish  peasants  are  the  happiest  in  the  world, 
and  their  religion  and  clergy  are  amongst  the  chief 
sources  of  their  happiness.  A  more  serious  English 
writer,  Mr  R.  Thirlmere  ("  Letters  from  Catalonia," 
1905),  might  be  adduced  as  a  qualified  supporter. 
But  as  throughout  his  work,  especially  in  the  valuable 
special  chapter  on  this  point,  Mr  Thirlmere  quotes  the 
Spaniards  themselves  as  uniformly  saying  that  "the 
Jesuits  are  contentedly  moving  towards  their  own  ruin 
and  towards  the  ruin  of  the  whole  Roman  Church " 
(p.  292),  that  "  recent  events  have  made  the  Spaniard, 
if  anything,  more  of  a  Materialist  "  (p.  294),  that  "the 
doom  of  the  Church  has  already  been  spoken  in  this 
land"  (p.  296),  and  that  "the  Church  knows  she  is 
doomed  in  Spain"  (p.  437 — and  this,  he  says,  is 
repeated  by  "  nearly  all  he  meets  "),  he  turns  out  to  be 
a  strong  supporter  of  my  own  conclusion.  He  seems 
indisposed  to  welcome  it,  yet  apparently  could  find 
none  to  tell  him  otherwise.  When  he  states,  as  his 
own  estimate,  that  Spain  is  "a  land  where,  to  woman 
at  least,  Christ  still  lives,"  and  that  the  Church  gets 
money  mainly  through  the  women,  whose  husbands 
"curse  their  fervour,"  I  need  not  dissent.  The  men 
of  Spain  are  predominantly  anti-Catholic  or  indifferent. 
Other  writers  are  explicit  enough.  "  The  bigotry 
one  reads  of  in  the  Spanish  wars  of  independence," 


SPAIN    AND   PORTUGAL  83 

says  Passarge,  "has  given  place  to  a  sort  of  religious 
indifference,  if  not,  as  is  the  case  in  Catalonia,  which  is 
quite  full  of  modern  ideas,  to  a  superficial  Freethought" 
("  Aus  Spanien  und  Portugal,"  1905,  p.  3).  In  the  chief 
church  of  Barcelona  he  found  very  few  men,  and  those 
poor  and  aged.  Sarrasi  ("L'Espagne  d'aujourd'hui") 
gives  the  same  estimate.  In  the  rural  districts,  he 
says,  the  priest  generally  acts  as  mayor,  and  is  the 
only  literate  person  in  the  place,  so  that  the  men  are 
dependent  on  him,  but  "in  the  large  towns  the  power 
of  the  clergy  has  greatly  diminished."  The  artisan 
and  the  professional  man  generally  "are  now  free 
from  their  earlier  prejudice  "  (p.  82).  In  Andalusia, 
the  lotusland  of  the  superficial  traveller,  the  poor 
impatiently  declare  Catholicism  "the  religion  of  the 
rich,"  and  are  "  beginning  to  dislike  the  clergy."  The 
most  serious  American  writer  I  find  says : 

"Though  an  earnest  advocate  of  religious  toleration,  Castelar 
never  neglects  the  observance  of  his  Church,  and  shows  deep 
religious  feeling  in  his  writings.  In  this  it  is  to  be  greatly  regretted 
that  his  followers  are  few  [yet  he  was  the  Conservative  leader].  In 
Spain,  at  the  present  day,  there  is  a  marked  absence  of  real  religion. 
The  enlightened  classes  have  emancipated  themselves  from  the 
priests,  and  at  the  same  time  from  their  belief  in  the  essential  truths 
of  Christianity;  while  the  peasantry  seem  to  combine  irreligion 
with  superstition.  Spaniards  never  will  become  Christians  after 
the  American  or  English  model;  and  it  may  be  doubted  if  they 
will  ever  go  back  again  as  a  nation  to  anything  like  the  form  of 
Christianity  they  have  repudiated  and  outgrown."1 

When  we  turn  to  native  writers  we  find  complete 
confirmation  of  these  observations  of  foreigners.  A 
few  years  ago  L.  Morote  published  a  series  of  inter- 
views he  had  had  with  the  statesmen  and  writers  of 
his  country  ("El  Pulso  di  Espana,"  1904).  Their 
general  disdain  of  the  Church  is  very  marked,  and 

1  "  Spain  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  "  (1898),  p.  389,  by  Elizabeth 
Wormeley. 


84    DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

even  the  Catholic  leader,  Nocedal,  exclaims  to  him  : 
"  We  have  abandoned  the  moral  and  spiritual  interests 
of  the  world — those  of  Catholicism."  All  the  others 
leave  religion  out  of  account  in  the  quest  for  uplifting 
agencies,  and  look  to  education,  political  reform,  etc. 

Equally  convincing,  in  a  very  different  way,  is  the 
recent  work  of  Ramon  de  Torre-Isunza  ("  La  Verdad  a 
S.  M.E1  Rey,"  1902).  This  fervent  and  philosophic 
Catholic  writer  turns  his  work,  which  he  addresses 
to  the  king,  into  a  profound  lament  on  the  decay  of 
religion  in  his  "dying  country."  He  is  far  from 
anticlericalism,  and  equally  far  from  fanaticism  ;  some 
remarkable  combination  of  the  Church  and  modern 
culture  is,  he  thinks,  to  save  Spain.  But  he  says 
repeatedly :  "  Our  country  is  marked  by  more  indif- 
ference and  practical  atheism  than  any  other  in 
Europe.  Religion  has  power  only  over  a  very  few 
consciences  amongst  us.  Catholicism  exercises  no 
real  influence  over  the  manners  of  the  people"  (p. 
165).  What  Catholics  there  are,  he  says,  are  mostly 
"bad  Catholics,"  and  "our  religiousness  is  reduced 
to  a  pharisaical  formalism,  so  much  the  more  immoral 
as  it  is  hypocritical  "  (p.  168). 

Another  native  writer,  Gotor  de  Burbaguena,  says  • 
"The  clergy  are  rushing,  as  if  impelled  by  some 
external  force,  to  their  own  destruction"  ("  Nuestras 
Costumbres,"  1900,  p.  19).  Meeting  the  impressions 
of  travellers  like  Mr  Kennedy,  he  exclaims: 

"  At  first  sight  it  might  be  thought  that  we  are  Catholics.  .  .  . 
What  a  deception  !  What  an  empty  affectation  of  sentiments  we 
no  longer  entertain  !  What  a  hypocritical  submission  to  a  practice 
that  we  despise  in  the  depths  of  our  soul"  (p.  265). 

He  points  out,  as  all  do,  that  on  weekdays  "the 
only  people  at  church  are  women,  and  those  generally 
of  advanced  age"  (p.  266),  and  that  men  generally  go 


SPAIN   AND    PORTUGAL  85 

to  church  only  when  their  wives  are  importunate,  even 
on  Sundays. 

These  citations  are  typical  of  the  passages  one  finds 
on  this  subject  in  the  various  classes  of  Spanish  litera- 
ture. They  show  that  the  educated  men  of  Spain  are 
in  the  same  condition  as  the  educated  men  of  Italy, 
and  that  the  workers,  in  proportion  as  they  receive 
education,  follow  their  example.  All  that  I  have  said 
of  the  literature  of  Italy  applies  entirely  to  the  litera- 
ture of  Spain.  It  reflects  the  feeling  of  those  who 
read.  I  pick  up  at  random,  in  a  store  of  cheap  Spanish 
books,  one  that  has  on  its  paper  cover  a  long  list  of 
the  books  chiefly  circulated  by  Sempere  y  Ca.,  the 
Tauchnitz  of  Spain.  Of  ninety  works  on  the  list — 
novels,  drama,  history,  philosophy,  etc. — sixty  are 
translations  from  the  most  prominent  anti-Christian 
writers  in  Europe.  The  religion  of  most  of  the  others 
is  unknown  to  me,  but  I  recognise  ten  anticlerical 
Spaniards  and  one  Catholic.  I  run  my  eyes  over  the 
shelves  in  the  store:  Perez  Gald6s,  Blasco  Ibaiiez, 
Renan,  Zola,  Voltaire,  Strauss,  Haeckel,  Draper, 
Spencer,  Darwin,  Ibsen,  Heine,  R^clus,  Tolstoy — it 
is  a  complete  gallery  of  heretics.  Perez  Gald6s 
dominates  Spain,  as  DAnnunzio  does  Italy,  or  Zola 
did  France;  and  he  is  an  ardent  anticlerical  and 
Republican.  In  1900  he  produced  a  play,  Electra, 
at  the  Teatro  Espaiiol  at  Madrid.  It  has  no  great 
dramatic  merit,  but  it  is  a  spirited  and  uncompromising 
attack  on  Catholicism.  It  invited  Spain  to  turn  away 
from  the  priesthood,  and  look  for  salvation  to  science 
and  naturalism.  At  the  end  of  the  first  act,  and 
especially  at  the  close,  it  was  greeted  with  frantic 
applause.  It  aroused  so  much  enthusiasm  in  Madrid 
and  the  provinces  that  it  has  been  widely  credited 
with  a  great  share  in  securing  at  the  next  election  the 
return  of  the  Liberals  with  a  strong  anticlerical  pro- 


86     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

gramme.  At  Barcelona,  not  long  afterwards,  a  drama 
(Pa/erm'dad)  was  presented  that  concentrated  in  its 
few  acts  the  fiercest  and  darkest  charges  that  have 
ever  been  made  against  the  Jesuits.  It  was  enthusiasti- 
cally cheered  ;  and,  at  a  call  for  the  author,  a  Catholic 
priest  (Segismondo  Pey-Ordeix)  walked  on  the  stage 
in  clerical  dress.  At  Madrid  a  bench  of  magistrates 
compelled  a  rich  convent  to  give  up  a  young  lady 
(Sen.  Ubao),  whom  a  Jesuit  confessor  had  secretly 
conducted  there. 

But  we  can  attain  to  greater  precision  in  determining 
the  losses  of  the  Church  in  Spain.  In  the  first  place 
we  have  the  powerful  political  bodies  that  are  distinctly 
anticlerical.  The  character  of  the  Liberals  may  be 
gathered  from  the  words  of  a  resolution  that  was 
passed  at  a  Catholic  congress,  and  forwarded  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Toledo.  It  pledged  the  Catholics 
never  to  buy  or  read  the  Liberal  journals,  specifying 
"El  Impartial,  Liberal,  Heraldo  de  Madrid,  Pais,  y 
otros  de  eso  genero."  The  Republicans,  Socialists, 
and  Anarchists,  who  share  between  them  the  bulk  of 
the  artisans  and  a  large  number  of  the  peasants,  are 
even  more  emphatically  anti- Roman.  Then  there  are 
the  Freemasons.  Their  strength  to-day  I  have  not 
been  able  to  ascertain,  but  I  find  a  Catholic  statement 
of  their  strength  twenty  years  ago,  when  the  power 
of  the  Church  was  greater.  In  1883  they  had  399 
lodges  in  Spain,  including  29  at  Cadiz,  25  at  Madrid, 
20  at  Murcia,  16  at  Seville  and  14  at  Valencia!1  We 
may  conjecture  how  numerous  they  are  to-day. 

1  "  La  Massonerfa  Espana,"  by  T.  M.  Tirado  y  Rojas  (1892).  Of 
Masonic  heterodoxy  on  the  Continent  it  is  not*  needful  to  speak. 
In  regard  to  Liberalism  I  may  add  that  in  1886  a  priest  wrote  a 
pamphlet  entitled  El  Liberalismo  es pecado  (  "  Liberalism  is  a  sin"). 
Another  priest  wrote  a  criticism  of  this,  and  he  was  promptly  put 
on  the  Index  and  referred  to  his  bishop  by  the  Vatican  for  correction. 


SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL  87 

We  may  indeed  describe  the  whole  popular  move- 
ment in  Spain  to-day  as  emphatically  anticlerical.  A 
remarkable  illustration  of  this  occurred  in  the  autumn 
of  1902,  when  a  Rationalist- Republican  journal  made 
an  effort  to  draw  the  attention  of  the  Spanish  workers 
to  a  Freethought  congress  that  was  to  be  held  at 
Geneva.  The  journal  (Las  Domi?iicales)  was  able, 
when  the  time  came,  to  give  a  list  of  more  than 
1000  Spanish  societies  that  sent  formal  support  and 
funds  to  this  violently  anti-Catholic  congress.  A 
very  large  proportion  were  Republican,  Socialist  or 
Anarchist  (in  the  philosophic  sense)  societies,  but  the 
details  of  the  long  list  are  curiously  indicative  of  the 
real  feeling  of  Spanish  workers.  Industrial,  peda- 
gogical and  co-operative  societies  figure  in  it.  Several 
associations  of  workers  in  the  remote  Canaries  tele- 
graphed their  adhesion.  Many  women's  societies  are 
included.  Indeed,  one  of  the  Spanish  Freethought 
journals,  La  Conciencia  Libera  (of  Malaga),  is  edited 
by  a  woman,  Sefiora  Sarraga,  and  has  a  large  circula- 
tion amongst  women.  In  the  Madrid  Freethinking 
paper  Las  Dominicales,  one  reads  weekly  of  secular 
marriages  and  baptisms,  and  other  indications  that  the 
women  and  children  of  Spain  are  abandoning  the 
Church.  Secular  schools  are  spreading  all  over  Spain, 
educating  the  children  of  the  Freethinkers  and  Republi- 
cans without  religion.  The  Escuela  Moderna  at 
Barcelona  has  130  pupils,  and  recently  gave  a  festival 
to  1 700  pupils  of  affiliated  schools.  There  are  thirteen 
others  in  Barcelona,  ten  in  Madrid,  and  some  in  most 
of  the  large  towns  and  in  many  villages.1 

1  These  schools  are  far  superior,  as  a  rule,  to  the  government 
schools.  The  Escuela  Moderna  provides  them  with  a  series  of 
thirty-one  text-books,  many  by  distinguished  writers.  Dr  Odon  de 
Buen,  Perez  Gald6s,  and  other  writers  are  directly  interested  in 
them.     A   few  sentences  from   a  statement   by  Senor  Lozano   of 


88     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

From  all  these  indications  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  conventional  idea  of  Spain  must  be  abandoned. 
The  situation  rapidly  approaches  that  of  Italy, 
and  creeps  on  toward  that  of  France.  Much 
nearer  the  truth  seems  to  be  the  estimate  given 
me  by  a  Spanish  writer  who  has  paid  especial 
attention  to  the  subject.  He  affirms  that  of  the 
adult  males  of  Spain  only  from  25  to  30  per 
cent,  go  to  church,  and  that  even  the  majority  of 
these  go  merely  to  escape  importunacy  or  for  some 
other  external  consideration.  We  need  not  press 
the  latter  point ;  and  the  former  seems  to  be  in 
accord  with  the  other  authorities  I  have  quoted. 
It  means  that  of  the  4,000,000  or  5,000,000 
adult  males  in  the  country  only  about  1,000,000  are 

Madrid    will    show   how   little    the    average    traveller    knows    of 
Spain : 

"  Twenty-five  years  ago  scarcely  anybody  in  Spain  dared  venture 
to  speak  against  the  Church.  The  publication  of  Las  Dominicale^ 
[his  journal]  was  regarded  as  a  national  scandal.  Excommunica- 
tions, prosecutions,  fines,  threats  of  murder,  the  actual  assassination 
of  one  of  its  principal  writers — nothing  was  spared.  To-day,  instead 
of  attacking  us,  the  Church  has  to  defend  itself.  More  than  a 
hundred  Republican  journals  are  decidedly  Freethought  in  character, 
and  the  immense  majority,  if  not  all,  of  the  Republican  societies, 
of  which  there  are  thousands,  are  Rationalistic.  All  the  societies  of 
Republican,  Socialistic,  Anarchist  and  Co-operative  character  are 
Freethought  societies.  For  example,  at  Sabadell,  a  large  industrial 
city,  the  whole  of  the  societies  and  institutions  have  often  appointed 
me  as  their  delegate  at  International  Freethought  Congresses.  There 
are  small  villages  buried  away  in  the  mountains,  like  Prado  del  Rey 
(Cadiz)  where  the  majority  of  the  interments  are  civil  interments. 
In  San  Vicente  de  Alcantara  (Badajos)  the  mass  of  the  people  are 
Freethinkers.  In  districts  like  Penalsordo  (Badajos),  where  I  had 
no  idea  that  even  a  single  Freethinker  existed,  secular  marriages 
are  celebrated,  at  which  the  people  attend  en  masse,  while  the 
strains  of  the  Marseillaise  lend  music  and  sentiment  to  the  cere- 
mony." Republicanism  is  very  powerful  also.  At  the  last  general 
election  it  returned  three  members  for  Madrid,  including  Perez 
Gald6s. 


SPAIN   AND    PORTUGAL  89 

Roman  Catholics,  and  these  are  for  the  most  part 
illiterate.1 

When  we  take  further  into  account  the  movement 
amongst  the  women  and  the  transfer  of  children,  we 
must  assess  the  Church's  loss  in  Spain  at  3,000,000 
or  4,000,000.  The  Church's  loss  means,  we  must 
remember,  almost  the  full  strength  of  Liberalism, 
Freemasonry,  Republicanism,  Socialism,  Anarchy, 
Freethought,  native  Protestantism,  Spiritualism  and 
the  secular  schools  of  the  country,  besides  a  mass  of 
unorganised  indifferentism.  I  do  not  see  how  it  is 
possible  to  estimate  this  collective  body  at  less  than  a 
fifth  of  the  population  ;  my  Spanish  informants  insist 
that  it  is  much  more.  And  it  must  be  remembered 
that  this  body  of  seceders  accounts  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  literate  portion  of  the  population — which 
is  only  6,000,000  out  of  18,500,000.  In  the  illiterate 
mass  of  12,000,000  (with  a  minority  of  the  literates) 
the  Vatican  may  take  what  pride  it  will ;  but  they  will 
be  literate  by-and-by. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  increase  of 
clerical  activity  in  Spain  of  late  years  has  other  than 
Spanish  causes.      It  is  a  very  poor  fallacy  to  see  in  it 

1  This  includes,  of  course,  50,000  priests,  monks  and  sacristans, 
and  the  large  number  of  workers  dependent  on  Church  life.  The 
Missionary  Review  of  the  World  (April  1902)  estimates  the  full 
clerical  corporation  at  154,  517.  There  are,  besides,  91,226  beggars 
in  Spain,  who  are  all  parasites  of  the  Church. 

Mr  Isaacson,  in  his  "  Rome  in  many  Lands,"  gives  several  valuable 
quotations  in  support  of  the  conclusion  I  have  reached,  but  he 
omits  to  give  dates,  and  I  cannot  verify  them.  He  refers  to  an 
article  in  The  Church  Times  that  describes  infidelity  as  quite  general 
in  Spain.  He  further  quotes  El  Correo  Espanol,  a  Catholic  paper, 
as  saying  that  only  1,500,000  of  the  men  and  3,500,000  of  the  women 
of  Spain  are  now  Roman  Catholics.  He  seems  to  overlook  the 
children,  however,  when  he  adds  that  the  remaining  13,000,000  are 
indifferent  to  religion.  In  any  case  this  Catholic  estimate  assigns 
to  the  Church  double  the  loss  that  I  do. 


90     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

a  reinvigoration  of  Catholic  life  in  the  country.  From 
the  early  eighties,  when  the  French  Liberals  first 
began  to  put  pressure  on  their  Jesuits  and  other 
religious,  there  has  been  a  series  of  monastic  migrations 
across  the  Pyrenees.  The  loss  of  Cuba  and  the 
Philippines  threw  a  fresh  flood  of  clerics  and  monks 
upon  the  mother  country.  There  were  in  the  Philip- 
pines 1500  secular  and  regular  clergy,  and  it  was 
calculated  that  the  Church  drew  113,000,000  pesetas 
annually  from  the  islands.  All  this  absorbent  body 
has  now  been  added  to  the  struggling  clerical  corpora- 
tion in  Spain.  The  Concordat  of  1854  was  especially 
modified  in  their  favour,  and  they  have  begun  to 
acquire  property  as  they  did  in  France.  To  these  are 
now  added  thousands  of  fresh  conventual  immigrants 
from  France,  since  the  suppression  of  convents  there, 
so  that  there  are  now  more  than  80,000  priests,  monks 
and  nuns  working  or  teaching  amongst  the  population. 
This  comparative  increase  of  late  years — though  the 
number  is  little  more  than  half  what  it  was  a  century 
ago — merely  means  that  the  Church  has  failed  in  other 
parts  of  the  world,  and  they  are  concentrating  upon 
Spain. 

There  are  signs  that  the  men  of  Spain  will  pass 
before  long  from  indifferentism  to  hostility.  In  July 
1906  Lopez  Dominguez,  an  anticlerical,  became 
Premier,  and  announced  a  programme  that  included 
freedom  of  worship,  the  secularisation  of  education, 
the  recognition  of  the  civil  marriage  of  Catholics  and 
the  regulation  of  the  right  of  (conventual)  association. 
He  was  met  by  so  fierce  a  storm  (almost  entirely  raised 
by  the  women  and  the  clergy,  says  the  Annual 
Register)  that  he  was  forced  to  resign.  But  with  the 
growth  of  education  and,  possibly,  the  emergence  of 
the  young  king  from  the  narrow  clerical  world  in 
which  he  has  been  reared,  it  will  become  less  possible 


SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL  91 

for  the  bishops  (several  of  whom  were  prosecuted  even 
in  1906)  to  describe  the  Premier  of  the  country  as 
"  Diocletian "  in  their  pastorals,  and  to  meet  his 
constitutional  procedure  with  intrigue  at  the  palace 
and  riot  in  the  country.  The  work  of  educating  Spain 
is  proceeding,  though  very  slowly.  Education  was 
declared  compulsory  in  1857.  By  1877  it  was  calcu- 
lated that  about  4,000,000  (out  of  16,500,000)  could 
read  and  write:  in  1887  the  number  was  about 
5,000,000 ;  and  to-day  it  is  believed — all  Spanish 
returns  are  untrustworthy — to  be  about  6,000,000  (in 
18,500,000).  The  support  of  the  schools  is  laid  almost 
entirely  on  the  local  authorities,  and  they  generally 
refuse  to  provide  or  maintain  them.  Only  about 
,£1,000,000  sterling  has  been  spent  on  education  in 
three  years  by  Government  and  municipalities.  There 
are  now  24,000  schools  in  the  country,  with  1,600,000 
pupils,  and,  though  the  teachers  are  wretchedly  paid 
and  the  instruction  is  generally  ridiculously  poor,  the 
light  is  slowly  breaking  over  Spain. 

It  is  ominous  for  the  Church  that  anticlericalism 
spreads  everywhere  in  the  path  of  education,  but  she 
has  postponed  reform  until  it  is  too  late.  Decade  by 
decade  she  has  fought  the  application  of  the  education 
law  of  1857,  and  she  obstructs  it  to-day.  But  if  there 
is  one  point  on  which  serious  reformers  of  all  schools 
now  unite  in  Spain,  as  one  clear  means  of  lifting  their 
unfortunate  country  out  of  the  situation  that  gives  so 
sombre  a  shade  to  their  writings,  it  is  "Ensenanza" 
— primary  education,  especially.  It  will  be  given  in 
spite  of  the  Church,  and  that  will  be  fatal  to  her.1  A 
spirit  akin  to  that  of  France  in  1900  will  arise  in  the 

1  I  do  not,  of  course,  forget  that  nearly  a  third  of  the  nuns  of 
Spain  are  engaged  in  teaching.  What  Spain  needs  is  not  instruction 
of  the  type  given  in  those  schools,  but  of  the  type  given  in  the  rest 
of  Furope. 


92     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

country.  Catalonia  already  chafes  at  the  2300  con- 
ventual establishments  it  somehow  supports  ;  Barce- 
lona murmurs  angrily  under  its  burden  or  165  spacious 
homes  of  idleness,  some  of  which  cost  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  pounds.  The  nation  at  large  will 
come  to  read,  in  the  stirring  pages  of  Perez  Gald6s 
("  Episodios  Nacionales "),  how  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  the  clergy  aided  the  brutal  repression  of  every 
effort  to  bring  Spain  into  line  with  the  general  advance 
of  Europe.  It  will  open  wide  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
they  have  tolerated  clerical  practices,  such  as  the  sale 
of  indulgences,  that  the  rest  of  Europe  thought  to 
have  been  abandoned  by  Rome  three  centuries  ago. 
In  that  inevitable  awakening  of  the  Spanish  people  it 
will  fare  ill  with  the  Church  of  Rome.1 

1  Note  on  the  Sale  of  Indulgences. — I  called  attention  to 
this  religious  practice  in  modern  Spain  in  an  article  in  The  Con- 
temporary Review.  I  there  explained  that  for  seventy-five  eentimos 
the  Spaniard  buys,  at  the  book-store  or  of  a  priest,  a  bula  (a  paper 
signed  and  sealed  by  the  Archbishop  of  Toledo)  granting  a  plenary 
indulgence  to  himself  (after  confession),  or  one  offering  him  a 
plenary  indulgence  for  a  dead  relative ;  or  for  fifty  eentimos  (5d.),  one 
granting  him  permission  to  eat  meat  on  nearly  all  the  fast  days  of 
the  year.  I  need  hardly  observe  that  the  Church  does  not  profess 
to  "  sell "  them.  You  give  her  an  "  alms  "  (for  herself,  as  the  bula 
declares,  not  for  the  poor),  and  she  gives  you  the  indulgence.  Every 
year  a  special  decree  is  received  by  the  archbishop  from  the  Vatican 
authorising  this  monstrous  practice,  fresh  bulas  are  printed  and 
issued,  and  a  troop  of  medieval  heralds  announces  the  fact  on  the 
streets  of  Madrid.  But  there  is  a  fourth  and  more  infamous  bula — 
the  "thieves'  bula."  This  egregious  document,  which  costs  one 
pes.  fifteen  eentimos  (is.),  assures  the  buyer  that  if  he  has  any  ill- 
gotten  property  in  his  possession,  of  which  he  does  not  know  the 
name  and  address  of  the  owner,  he  may  retain  it  and  consider  it 
his  own,  in  consideration  of  his  "alms"  of  a  shilling  to  the  clergy. 
One  bula  covers  twelve  shillings'  worth  of  property,  and  any  number 
of  bulas  may  be  "taken  out"  up  to  fifty.  If  the  value  of  the  stolen 
property  exceeds  7 35  pesetas  (about  ^30),  "application  must  be  made 
to  us  for  a  fitting  solution  of  the  case,"  says  the  archbishop's  bula 
gravely.     It  is  difficult  to  conceive  a  more  cynical  document  written 


SPAIN   AND    PORTUGAL  93 

PORTUGAL 

The  condition  of  religion  is  so  notoriously  similar 
in  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  the  population  of  the 
latter  is  so  much  smaller  than  that  of  the  former, 
that  it  is  unnecessary  to  make  a  minute  inquiry  into 
the  remainder  of  the  Peninsula.  I  am  aware  that  a 
great  deal  of  hostility  exists  between  the  two  countries, 
and  they  dislike  the  habit  of  bracketing  them  together. 
But  there  is  so  close  a  parallel  in  their  histories  and 
their  cultural  conditions  that  the  situation  of  the 
Church  is  the  same  in  both  countries. 

Portugal,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  the  first 
kingdom  to  expel  the  Jesuits  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  work  of  the  Marquis  de  Pombal  was, 
however,  undone  during  the  reign  of  Maria  I.,  and 
the  defection  from  Rome  began,  as  in  Spain  and 
Italy,  with  the  infiltration  of  the  ideas  of  the  French 
philosophers.  Towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  "the  educated  classes  were  brought  up  in 
the  doctrines  of  the  Encyclopaedists,"  says  Morse 
Stephens  (Portugal).  But  the  spread  of  French 
culture  was  limited,  not  only  by  the  general  condition 
of  dense  ignorance,  but  by  the  early  hostility  of 
Portugal  to  Napoleonic  France.  The  Freemasons 
did  indeed  welcome  Junot's  troops,  but  the  nation 
at  large  soon  joined  with  England  in  a  fierce 
opposition  to  everything  French.  The  king  had  fled 
to  Brazil — where  his  son  was  grand  master  of  the 
Freemasons — in  1807,  and  a  few  years  after  Napoleon's 

in  religious  language.  A  full  account  of  these  bulas,  with  facsimiles 
and  translations,  is  given  in  "Romish  Indulgences  of  To-day"  by 
"  Fulano  "  (an  English  minister  living  in  Spain,  I  believe),  and  I  have 
taken  care  to  secure  copies  of  the  bulas  and  verify  the  facts.  The  strain 
that  these  facts  put  on  the  apologetic  powers  of  the  English  clergy  may 
be  seen  in  Father  Sydney  Smith's  "  Are  Indulgences  sold  in  Spain  ?  " 


94     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

fate,  the  Liberals  obtained  power,  forced  the  regency 
to  summon  the  Cortes,  abolished  the  Inquisition,  and 
framed  a  constitution  on  modern  lines.  This  con- 
stitution was  endorsed  by  John  VI.,  on  his  return, 
and  the  Liberals  generally  held  their  own  in  the 
struggle  with  the  clericals  until  John's  death  in  1826. 
His  son  preferred  to  remain  Emperor  of  Brazil,  and 
left  the  throne  of  Portugal  to  his  daughter,  with  Dom 
Miguel  as  Regent. 

At  this  juncture  the  clergy  and  reactionaries  made 
a  bargain  with  the  usurper  something  similar  to  the 
unlucky  alliance  of  the  Spanish  clergy  with  Don 
Carlos.  Dom  Miguel  secured  the  throne  with  little 
trouble,  as  he  swore  to  respect  the  Liberal  constitu- 
tion. "  That  he  took  the  oath  as  a  political  necessity 
and  with  the  secret  reserve  of  his  legitimate  rights  is 
practically  certain,"  says  "The  Cambridge  History" 
(vol.  x.  p.  321).  "  His  subsequent  actions  showed  that 
he  did  not  regard  his  oath  as  binding  on  his  conscience  ; 
his  Jesuit  training  would  make  it  easy  for  him  to  rest 
content  with  the  absolution  of  the  Church  for  a  breach 
of  faith  committed  on  behalf  of  the  good  cause." 
Here  again  the  misguided  clergy  allied  themselves 
with  brutality  and  deception,  and  heaped  up  the 
fearful  account  they  would  have  to  face  when  the 
inevitable  hour  of  general  enlightenment  should  come. 
A  reign  of  terror  only  surpassed  by  that  at  Madrid 
set  in.  "Death  to  Liberals  and  Freemasons"  was 
the  first  principle  of  the  authorities  and  the  clergy 
from  1828  to  1832.  A  large  number  of  the  more 
progressive  Portuguese  (some  historians  say  17,000) 
were  executed,  as  many  more  were  deported  to  Africa, 
and  some  30,000  were  consigned  to  the  jails  of 
Portugal.  Under  the  stress  of  this  sanguinary  and 
treacherous  persecution  the  Radicals  of  all  schools 
united,    Don    Pedro   was  invited  to  cross  over  from 


SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL  95 

Brazil,  and  the  crown  was,  in  1834,  restored  to  his 
daughter. 

The  restoration  was  a  fresh  triumph  for  Liberalism 
and  a  heavy  blow  for  the  Church.  Tithes  were 
abolished,  monastic  property  was  confiscated,  and 
for  a  time  all  the  monasteries  and  convents  in  Portugal 
were  closed.  But  it  is  needless  to  pursue  the  story 
throughout  the  long  series  of  revolutions  and  counter- 
revolutions. The  anticlerical  party  has  maintained 
its  position,  and  the  educated  Portuguese  are  to-day 
no  more  Roman  Catholic  than  the  educated  Spaniards. 
Several  of  the  quotations  I  have  given  (as,  from 
Passarge's  "  Aus  Spanien  und  Portugal ")  apply  ex- 
plicitly both  to  Portugal  and  Spain.  Guyot  ("  Le  bilan 
de  l'Eglise  ")  even  holds  that  Portugal  is  "  more  eman- 
cipated than  Spain,"  and  the  distinguished  Lisbon 
journalist  and  pacificist,  Magalhaes  Lima,  makes  the 
same  statement.  But  the  mass  of  the  people  are 
even  more  illiterate  than  the  Spaniards,  and  there  is 
less  effort  being  made  to  educate  them.  In  1878  the 
illiterates  were  82  per  cent,  of  the  population:  to-day 
the  proportion  has  only  been  reduced  to  78*6  per 
cent.  In  1900  there  were  only  240,000  pupils  in  the 
elementary  schools  of  Portugal,  though  education  has 
been  declared  compulsory  since  1844. 

On  the  other  hand  there  are  93,979  parish  priests 
to  the  population  of  5,423,132 — a  parish  to  every 
fifty  people !  With  this  enormous  and  wealthy  cor- 
poration working  for  the  Church,  and  with  the  mass 
of  the  people  at  a  lower  cultural  level  than  any  other 
nation  in  Europe  (except  Russia,  perhaps),  we  cannot 
expect  more  than  a  general  secession  of  the  educated 
class,  and  a  proportionate  growth  of  anticlericalism 
amongst  the  more  insurgent  political  bodies.  In 
proportion  to  the  population,  Rome  has  lost  heavily 
in  Portugal,  as  in  the  rest  of  the  Latin  world.     But 


96     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

as  the  total  number  of  literate  and  adult  males  is 
not  more  than  500,000,  the  number  of  seceders 
will  not  greatly  swell  the  total.  Enough  to  say  that 
the  Church  has  lost  more  than  50  per  cent,  of  the 
Portuguese  who  can  read,  besides  large  numbers  of 
workers,  and  that  the  revolt  grows  with  the  spread 
of  education.1 

1One  positive  indication  has  come  under  my  notice.  Chance 
put  in  my  way  an  official  Masonic  document  giving  the  number  of 
lodges  in  Portugal  and  Portuguese  Africa  in  1905.  The  Spanish 
work  I  quoted  above  ("La  Massoneria  en  Espana")  declared  that 
there  were  only  two  Masonic  lodges  in  Portugal  in  1883.  This 
official  document  gives  the  number  of  lodges  in  1905  as  105  !  And 
the  Portuguese  Freemasons  are  especially  pledged  to  anticlericalism. 

Another  indication  is  found  in  the  strength  of  Republicanism, 
which  seems  to  be  curiously  underrated  outside  Portugal.  Not 
only  have  the  Portuguese  Republicans  five  journals  in  Lisbon  alone 
(the  Vanguardia  Mundo,  Paiz,  Voz  Publico,  and  Lucta),  and  several 
in  the  provinces,  but  they  have  a  very  considerable  following 
amongst  leaders  of  culture.  The  directorate  of  the  movement 
consists  of  Professor  Machado,  Senor  D'Almeida  (ex-deputy),  Senor 
Costa  (a  distinguished  lawyer),  Senor  Gomes  (doctor  of  law  and 
well-known  sociologist),  and  Senor  C.  D'Almeida  (an  influential 
physician).  The  party  includes  savants  like  T.  Braga,  J.  P. 
Sampaio,  P.  Zelles,  D.  Luite,  etc.,  and  poets  like  G.  Junquiero 
and  G.  Leal,  and  many  professors,  authors,  etc.  The  idea  that 
it  consists  of  obscure  groups  of  uneducated  workers  is  ludicrous. 
In  Spain  the  same  party  includes  men  like  Perez  Gald6s,  Spain's 
greatest  writer,  and  Senor  Salmeron  (ex-rector  of  university). 

Add  the  Freethinkers,  who  are  very  strong,  the  Socialists,  the 
Anarchists,  and  the  unorganised  seceders,  and  it  will  be  seen  how 
much  the  Church  has  lost  in  Portugal. 


CHAPTER    V 

THE   LATIN  WORLD— SPANISH  AMERICA 

A  SIMILAR  but  more  interesting  study  con- 
fronts us  when  we  turn  to  consider  the  teeming 
millions  of  Spanish  America.  The  Catholic 
historian  of  earlier  days,  seeking  some  earthly  indica- 
tion of  the  plan  of  Providence  in  allowing  half  of 
Europe  to  secede  from  the  Church,  never  failed  to 
direct  his  readers'  attention  to  Central  and  South 
America.  There  a  new  Catholic  nation  had  arisen 
to  compensate  the  Church  for  her  losses  in  the  Old 
World.  From  the  prairies  of  North  America  to  the 
Strait  of  Magellan  the  devout  Spaniards  and  Portu- 
guese had  overrun  the  land,  and  peopled  it  with  loyal 
followers  of  the  papacy.  Nor  did  the  new  provinces 
seem  to  be  threatened  by  the  rise  of  a  sturdy  spirit 
of  independence  and  cultivation  in  the  farther  north. 
The  chain  of  the  Andes  might  have  been  drawn 
across  the  frontier  of  Mexico  for  all  the  influence  that 
early  "  Americanism  "  seemed  to  have  on  the  slumber- 
ing populations  to  the  south.  The  characteristics  of 
their  motherlands  were  preserved  with  a  fidelity  that 
has  few  parallels  in  the  history  of  colonisation.  Great 
illiteracy,  gross  superstition  and  despotic  clerical  rule 
seemed  to  be  their  unchanging  features. 

The  population  of  Spanish  America  to-day  is  about 
65,000,000.  Of  these  the  Catholic  writer  claims  some 
60,000,000,  after  making  a  vague  allowance  for 
obviously  unconverted  natives,  Jews,  Protestants, 
Positivists,  declared  Rationalists,  etc.  It  may  be 
granted  at  once  that  more  than  one-fourth  of  the 
g  97 


98     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

whole  Catholic  population  of  the  world  is  in  Spanish 
America.     But  what  a  population  it  is  !     One-third  of 
the  60,000,000  are  aborigines  or  negroes,  who  very 
largely  elude   every  test  of  civilisation.     They  rise 
gradually  from  a  state  of  complete  wildness,  in  which 
even  the    most   ardent  apologist  would  shrink  from 
recognising   Catholicism,    to    a   state   of    incomplete 
civilisation  in  which  Catholic  doctrines  mingle  light- 
heartedly  with  pagan  beliefs  and  practices.     A  third 
more  are  half-castes,  with,  to  a  very  great  extent,  a 
half-caste  civilisation.      Less  than  one-third  are  whites, 
and    these    whites,    apart    from    certain    classes    of 
foreigners,  are  at  a  lower  cultural  level  than  Spain 
and   Portugal.     Of  the   65,000,000  about  53,000,000 
are  densely  ignorant  and   illiterate.     And  of  the  re- 
maining    12,000,000    (whites    and    half-breeds)    the 
majority  of  the  men,  we  shall  see,  are  either  indifferent 
to,  or  intensely  hostile  to,  the  Catholic  Church. 

It  may  be  a  matter  of  indifference  to  the  Church, 
from  its  point  of  view,  whether  its  followers  are 
literate  or  illiterate,  civilised  or  uncivilised.  To  the 
social  observer,  and  especially  to  those  who  would 
forecast  the  future,  it  is  a  point  of  vital  importance. 
He  will  be  quite  prepared  to  find  that  these  unthink- 
ing masses,  absolutely  cut  off  from  the  thought  of  the 
modern  world,  totally  ignorant  of  the  movements  that 
are  taking  place  in  religious  life,  have  not  stirred 
very  far  from  their  traditions.  Their  fidelity  is  the 
mere  quiescence  of  an  inert  mass,  not  a  discriminating 
choice  to  remain  Catholic.  The  serious  problem  for 
the  social  observer  is  to  discover  the  attitude  towards 
Catholicism  of  the  educated  one-fifth  of  their  teeming 
population.  And  the  moment  he  approaches  this 
problem  he  discovers  what  he  has  discovered  in  Italy 
and  Spain.  Of  the  cultivated  minority  the  Church 
of  Rome  has  lost  a  good  50  per  cent,  in  the  course 


SPANISH   AMERICA  99 

of  the  last  century  ;  and  her  losses  increase  with  each 
fresh  extension  of  education.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  she  had  lost  7,000,000  or  8,000,000  inhabitants 
of  the  chief  countries  of  Spanish  America. 

This  will  be  amply  proved  by  a  detailed  inquiry 
into  the  religious  position  in  each  of  the  larger  states, 
but  a  few  general  observations  of  an  historical  nature 
will  be  useful  to  the  reader.  Broadly  speaking,  the 
development  in  Spanish-America  has  kept  pace  with 
that  of  the  other  Latin  countries.  Liberalism  was 
born  there,  of  French  (and  partly  North-American) 
ideas,  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
state  of  the  monasteries,  the  selfishness  of  the  clergy 
and  the  medieval  nature  of  the  Spanish  religion,  pro- 
vided the  usual  rich  soil  for  it.  The  small  educated 
class  was  soon  widely  infected  with  it.  Throughout 
the  century  it  has  faced  storms  of  clerical  opposition 
that  have  driven  its  roots  deeper  into  the  soil.  The 
extension  of  the  middle  class  gave  it  greater  ex- 
tension ;  and  the  recent  spread  of  education  has,  as 
ever,  carried  the  feeling  of  rebellion  in  its  wake. 
Voltaireanism,  Freemasonry  and  Positivism  have 
attained  large  proportions ;  and  now  Socialism 
and  popular  Freethought  are  making  fresh  ravages 
amongst  the  people. 

Let  me  recall,  in  a  few  words,  the  beginning  of  the 
trouble  in  Spanish  America.  To  show  how  peculiarly 
prepared  the  vast  territory  was  for  an  anticlerical 
movement  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  I 
will  quote  a  paragraph  from  our  standard  history : 

"  The  complaint  occurs  throughout  that  the  clergy  are  recruited 
from  two  sources  :  some  are  the  outcasts  of  Spanish  parishes  and 
monasteries :  others  are  Creoles,  either  idle  and  dissolute  men 
driven  by  disgrace  or  want  to  take  orders,  or  else  men  put  into 
religion  by  their  parents  with  a  view  to  getting  a  doctrina,  or  Indian 
parish,  and  making   a  fortune  out  of  the  Indians.     The  rule  of 


100     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

celibacy  was  generally  evaded ;  religious  duties  were  hurried 
through,  and  the  instruction  of  the  Indians  was  reduced  to  an 
absurdity ;  amidst  general  immorality  in  the  towns,  the  regulars  set 
the  worst  example,  making  their  monasteries  places  of  licence  and 
pleasure."  * 

To  the  thoughtful  minds  that  were  chafing  under 
these  conditions  there  came  the  stimulating  news  of 
Washington's  fights  and  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence ;  and  a  few  years  later  the  report  crept 
stealthily  from  province  to  province  that  Europe 
was  aflame  with  revolution,  and  the  Church  destroyed 
in  France.  At  once  the  Church  redoubled  the  pre- 
cautions it  had  long  taken  to  exclude  all  ideas  of 
progress. 

"It  had,"  says  an  American  student,  "prohibited  the  teaching 
of  the  arts  and  sciences,  restricted  education  to  the  Latin  grammar 
and  the  catechism;  and  limited  the  public  libraries  to  the  writings 
of  the  Fathers  and  to  works  on  civil  and  ecclesiastical  jurisprudence. 
It  had  even  prohibited  the  study  of  modern  geography  and  astronomy, 
and  forbade  the  reading  of  books  of  travel.  It  discouraged  the 
study  of  the  higher  mathematics,  and  condemned  all  philosophical 
inquiry  and  speculation  as  heresy.  It  had  even  placed  under  the 
ban  such  innocent  fiction  as  '  Gil  Bias '  and  '  Robinson  Crusoe ' ;  and 
there  had  never  been  a  book,  or  a  magazine,  or  a  newspaper  in  the 
whole  country  that  was  not  conformed  to  the  strictest  rule  of  the 
Roman  Index."2 

The  ecclesiastical  censor  now  became  more  vigilant 
than  ever.  Printing  presses  were  refused  even  to 
towns  of  50,000  inhabitants,  and  imprisonment  was 
freely  inflicted  on  those  who  sought  to  disseminate  the 
new  ideas.  At  length  the  news  came  that  Napoleon 
had  destroyed  the  Spanish  monarchy,  and  that  the 
King  of  Portugal  had  fled  to  Brazil ;  and  the  Liberals 
1 "  Cambridge  History,"  vol.  x.  p.  252.  It  is  somewhat  curious  to 
reflect  that  the  great  work  planned  by  Lord  Acton  has  proved  a 
veritable  mine  for  the  critics  of  Catholicism. 

2  "The  Columbian  and  Venezuelan  Republics,"  by  W.  L.  Scraggs, 
p.  128.  The  above  passage  is  written  with  reference  to  the  whole 
of  Spanish  America  in  the  eighteenth  century. 


SPANISH   AMERICA  101 

gathered  everywhere  under  the  banner  of  revolution. 
By  the  year  1810  the  War  of  Independence  was  raging 
from  Mexico  to  Chile.  How  in  the  course  of  fourteen 
years  the  revolution  conquered  throughout  America, 
and  the  various  republics  were  set  up,  is  a  matter  of 
general  history.  For  my  purpose  I  have  only  to  note 
that  the  clergy  generally  opposed  the  revolution — a 
few  Creole  priests  aiding  the  rebels  here  and  there — 
and,  when  the  work  was  complete,  found  themselves 
facing  a  powerful  anticlerical  party  in  each  of  the  new 
republics.  The  Spaniards  were  finally  driven  out 
in  1823,  and,  when  the  French  Bourbons  proposed  to 
assist  them,  President  Monroe  laid  down  his  famous 
doctrine  of  non-interference  from  Europe.  Portugal 
recognised  the  independent  empire  of  Brazil  in 
1825. 

The  story  of  the  Hispano- American  States  has 
been,  notoriously,  one  of  internal  conflict  and  revolu- 
tion throughout  the  nineteenth  century.  This  struggle 
has  been  one  of  clerical  and  anticlerical,  as  well  as  of 
opposed  political  ideals  and  conflicting  ambitions. 
Episodically  the  clerical  Conservative  party  has 
triumphed  so  far  as  to  have  recourse  to  drastic  and 
sanguinary  repression.  In  view  of  the  enormous 
proportion  of  illiterate  followers  of  the  clergy,  the 
wonder  is  that  their  opponents  have  ever  held  power 
at  all.  Yet  in  most  of  the  states  they  have  alternated 
regularly  in  power  with  the  Conservatives,  and  have 
— as  we  shall  see — permanently  disestablished  the 
Church,  and  carried  other  measures  that  the  clergy 
bitterly  opposed,  in  more  than  one  republic.  The 
century  has  witnessed  the  triumphant  spread  of  their 
ideas  amongst  the  small  cultivated  class,  and  the 
power  of  the  clergy  has  weakened  decade  by  decade. 
This  will  be  apparent  enough  if  we  take  a  brief  glance 
at  each  republic  in  turn. 


102     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 


MEXICO 

Mexico,  with  a  population  of  some  14,000,000  (the 
official  returns  are  incomplete),  of  whom  less  than 
3,000,000  are  whites,  and  some  12,000,000  are  com- 
pletely illiterate,  must  remain  for  some  time  a 
"Catholic  country."  Its  faith  is  the  faith  of  light- 
hearted  children,  and  is  generously  interwoven  with 
ancient  beliefs  and  practices  that  are  often  wholly  re- 
pugnant to  Catholic  ideals.  Your  Mexican  will  go  to 
mass  of  a  Sunday ;  and,  as  he  goes,  he  will  throw  a 
kiss  to  the  god  of  his  fathers  in  the  blue  sky  above. 
So  recently  as  1901  the  Archbishop  of  Mexico  took 
courage  to  suppress  the  verbenas,  or  native  celebra- 
tions of  Holy  Week,  which  began  with  religious 
ceremonies  and  ended  in  wild  debauch :  a  relic  of 
Aztec  days  that  the  Church  had  winked  at  for  three 
centuries.  There  are  to-day  "Christian"  tribes  of 
Indians  who  will  not  allow  the  priests  to  assist  at 
some  of  their  rites.  A  people  that,  in  its  pre-Christian 
days,  was  familiar  with  oral  confession  and  communion, 
monks  and  nuns,  and  Easter  rejoicings,  would  feel 
little  breach  of  religious  continuity,  save  for  the 
abandonment  of  bloody  sacrifice,  in  adopting  Catholi- 
cism, when  such  proceedings  as  the  verbenas  were 
permitted.  Mexico  is  very  Catholic,  "  but  very  far 
from  orthodox,"  says  Prince  Roland  Bonaparte,  in  his 
monumental  work  on  the  republic. 

Yet  Mexico  is  no  exception  to  the  rule,  throughout 
the  Latin  world,  that  the  educated  class  is  generally 
lost  to  the  Church.  The  present  position  of  the 
Church  in  the  country  bears  ample  witness  to  this 
fact.  It  is  entirely  separated  from  the  State,  and  all 
religions  are  equally  tolerated.  Indeed,  "the  con- 
stitution as   now   established,"  says   Mr    Tylor,   "re- 


SPANISH   AMERICA  103 

presents  the  complete  overthrow  of  medievalism." 
The  clergy  cannot  become  deputies  or  senators,  and 
even  those  characteristic  outgrowths  of  a  Catholic 
soil,  monasteries  and  convents  (which  flourished  even 
in  ancient  Mexico),  have  long  been  suppressed.  It  is 
true  that  a  few  still  have  a  precarious  existence  in 
certain  districts,  but  that  the  law  is  no  idle  form  was 
shown  in  1901.  A  clandestine  convent  in  Mexico 
city  was  denounced  to  the  police,  and,  though  the 
nuns  were  of  a  rigid  and  devout  order,  the  place 
was  closed  and  the  nuns  humanely  dispersed.  In 
the  following  year  a  priest  was  summoned  before 
a  magistrate  and  severly  admonished  for  wearing  a 
clerical  garb  in  the  street.  Other  laws  enact  that 
no  ecclesiastical  body  can  acquire  landed  property 
in  Mexico  (their  property  was  nationalised  in  1859); 
that  the  cemeteries,  hospitals  and  registers  of  births 
and  deaths  must  be  in  the  charge  of  laymen  ;  that  no 
civil  functionaries  need  attend  religious  ceremonies, 
and  so  on.1 

This  remarkably  advanced  condition  of  legislation 
in  Mexico,  and  the  complete  powerlessness  of  the 
Church  in  face  of  it,  tells  plainly  enough  the  hetero- 
doxy of  educated  Mexico.  It  is  a  Roman  Catholic 
country  only  in  the  sense  that  its  vast  population 
of  illiterates  still  observe  Catholic  forms.  And  if  we 
glance  at  its  history  we  understand  the  position.  It 
is  a  series  of  Freethinking  and  anticlerical  leaders 
that  have,  in  spite  of  clerical  opposition,  lifted  Mexico 

1  A  Mexican  lawyer,  F.  P.  Garcia,  has  issued  a  work  ("  Codigo  de 
la  Reforma")  that  gives  the  long  list  of  anticlerical  laws  passed  in 
Mexico  since  1855.  All  these  laws  are  still  in  force,  and  applied 
when  necessary.  They  are  known  as  the  ''Reform  Laws."  The 
writer,  who  seems  to  be  a  Catholic,  speaks  of  them  as  the  "Del- 
uge." Prince  Roland  Bonaparte  ("La  Mexique  au  debut  de  XXme. 
siecle  ")  hints  that  many  Liberals  may,  one  of  these  days,  press  for  the 
re-establishment  of  the  Church  solely  to  obtain  a  firmer  control  of  it. 


104     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

into  the  promising  position  it  holds  to-day.  Lying  so 
close  to  the  British  colonies,  Mexico  was  bound  to  be 
one  of  the  first  Hispano- American  provinces  to  feel  a 
stir  of  modern  life.  The  initial  revolutions  ( 1 808- 1821) 
were  largely  a  creole  revolt  against  Spanish  rule,  and 
Creole  priests  often  figured  in  them.  They  succeeded  in 
ousting  the  representatives  of  Spain,  but  "plunged  the 
country  back  into  barbarism"  ("Cambridge  History") 
by  their  unloosing  of  the  bonds  that  held  the  uncivil- 
ised masses  in  check,  and  there  were  many  years  of 
Anarchy.  In  the  later  fifties  the  Liberals  obtained  a 
decisive  power,  under  the  lead  of  the  native  lawyer 
Juarez,  and  framed  a  constitution.  The  Church  was 
disestablished,  all  conventual  institutions  were  sup- 
pressed, and,  with  some  compensation,  the  ecclesi- 
astical property  was  sold  for  the  national  service. 
Juarez  was  emphatically  anti-Catholic.  "  I  should  like 
Protestants  to  take  root  in  Mexico,"  he  said  to  Justus 
Sierra,  "and  to  win  over  the  Indians;  they  want  a 
religion  that  would  oblige  them  to  read,  and  not  waste 
their  savings  in  candles  for  the  saints."1 

His  drastic  legislation  did  not  tend  to  moderate 
the  unceasing  war  of  the  Colorados  and  Blancos. 
For  a  time  the  latter  returned  to  power,  with  the  help 
of  French  troops,  and  set  the  Austrian  Archduke  Maxi- 
milian on  the  throne  of  Mexico.  Within  four  years 
the  Colorados  swept  him  from  the  throne,  and  restored 
the  republic  under  Juarez,  who  remained  in  power 
until  his  death  in  1872.  His  successor,  Lerdo,  is  de- 
scribed ("Mexico:  its  Social  Evolution")  as  "ironi- 
cally foreign  to  all  belief,  though  he  had  a  religion  of 
the  greatness  of  the  country."  Once  more,  and  for  the 
last  time,  the  clerical  party  set  up  their  war  of  women 
and  peasants  ;  but  a  third  great  Liberal,  Porfirio  Diaz, 
came  to  power  in  1877,  and  his  party  has  proved  too 
1  "  Mexico  :  its  Social  Evolution  "  (an  official  work),  vol.  ii.  p.  423. 


SPANISH   AMERICA  105 

strong  to  be  shaken  by  clerical  opposition  for  three 
decades.  The  anticlerical  measures  of  Juarez  and 
Lerdo  were  confirmed,  and  have  become  a  settled  part 
of  the  constitution  of  Mexico.  Porfirio  Diaz  assumed 
the  presidency  of  the  republic  for  the  seventh  time 
in  1904. 

These  historical  outlines  sufficiently  reveal  the 
condition  of  thought  in  Mexico  without  any  minute 
investigation  of  churchgoing  or  other  religious  customs. 
In  no  other  Latin  country  except  France  has  the 
anticlerical  party  passed  so  many  of  its  ideal  measures, 
and  in  no  country  have  those  measures  been  so  long 
and  so  firmly  established.  Mexico's  constitution  is 
a  flagrant  and  standing  defiance  of  the  Syllabus  and 
the  papal  doctrines.  Clearly,  of  the  2,000,000  literate 
Mexicans  the  great  majority  are  lost  to  the  rule  of 
Rome,  and  the  loss  of  power  and  political  prestige 
is  the  most  serious  that  its  hierarchy  has  sustained  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  We  have  again  to  make  the 
distinction  that  everywhere  does  so  little  honour, 
and  offers  so  poor  an  outlook  to,  the  Vatican.  It  is 
entitled  to  claim  only  the  vast  illiterate  body  of  half- 
breeds  and  natives,  of  very  unorthodox  religious 
practice,  together  with  most  of  the  educated  women 
and  a  small  minority  of  the  educated  men.  It  has  lost 
its  hold  on  the  mature  mind  of  Mexico.  And  now 
that  the  liberals  are  earnestly  prosecuting  the  difficult 
work  of  education  the  outlook  is  dark  for  the  Church. 
There  is  little  in  Mexican  Catholicism  to  withstand  the 
shock  to  which  the  popular  mind  will  be  exposed  when 
the  literature  of  the  modern  world  is  opened  to  it. 
Already  there  are  871,000  children  in  its  schools 
(718,715  of  whom  are  in  government  or  municipal 
secular  schools),  and  the  number  increases.  But  with 
a  population  that  is  pure  Indian  to  the  extent  of  38 
per  cent.,  and  of  mixed  blood  to  a  further  extent  of 


106     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

43  per  cent.,  the  work  of  education  is  difficult.  As  it 
proceeds,  the  rebellion  spreads  amongst  the  half- 
breeds  and  natives.  Indeed  the  fine  old  race  that  the 
Spaniards  so  seriously  arrested  in  its  development  has 
given  more  than  one  brilliant  statesman  and  writer 
to  Mexico.  They  have  now  a  system  of  elementary 
education  that  is  free,  obligatory  and  secular ;  to  the 
12,000  government  schools  there  are  only  346  Church 
schools.  Rome  will  not  count  many  more  years  on 
its  12,000,000  illiterate  (and  largely  semi-civilised) 
followers.1 


BRAZIL 

The  largest  and  most  important  of  the  southern 
republics,  the  United  States  of  Brazil,  presents  features 
to  the  inquirer  into  religious  conditions  that  closely 
resemble  those  of  Mexico.  Its  population  of  more 
than  17,000,000  consists  to  the  extent  of  nearly  two- 
thirds  of  illiterate  and  uncivilised  or  half-civilised 
masses — Indians  (800,000),  negroes  (2,250,000),  half- 
castes  (1  1,500,000),  etc.,  on  whom  the  Catholic  religion 
was  forcibly  imposed  long  ago,  and  who  have  not  the 
mental  vitality  to  count  as  serious  adherents.  Yet, 
with  this  inert  mass  of  14,000,000  illiterate  followers 
at  their  command,  the  clergy  have  to  live  under  a  con- 
stitution that  they  bitterly  resent  in  many  of  its  chief 
features.     The    Church   has   been   disestablished    for 

1  Protestantism  makes  some  progress  in  Mexico,  and  is  en- 
couraged by  many  officials.  At  the  census  of  1895  there  were 
42,259  Protestants  and  70,000  of  no  religion.  But  these  figures 
must  be  taken  like  those  of  Spain.  I  read  in  some  Spanish- 
American  journal  an  account  of  the  taking  of  such  a  census  amongst 
the  illiterate.  It  was  explained  to  them  that  the  alternatives  to 
"Catholic"  were  "Jew"  and  "Protestant."  They  very  quickly 
replied  that,  though  they  "did  not  like  the  priests."  or  "set  little 
store  by  religion,"  they  must  be  put  in  the  first  category. 


SPANISH   AMERICA  107 

more  than  twenty  years,  civil  marriage  is  recognised 
and  common,  and  Protestantism  and  Positivism  thrive 
in  full  security.1 

The  situation  can  only  be  interpreted  in  the  same 
way  as  the  similar  situation  in  Mexico.  The  brain  of 
the  republic  is  not  Roman  Catholic.  The  stronger 
and  more  cultivated  elements  of  the  white  population 
have  very  largely  withdrawn  their  allegiance  to  the 
Vatican,  and  gone  over  to  the  Freemasons,  the  Free- 
thinkers, the  Positivists,  the  Protestants  or  the 
Spiritualists.  The  Church's  following  consists,  to  the 
extent  of  90  per  cent,  of  the  native  Indians  (many 
tribes  of  whom  are  quite  uncivilised  and  have  only 
the  thinnest  veneer  of  Catholicism),  the  mestizos,  the 
negroes  (who  were  imported  for  the  slave-market  until 
1853)  and  the  mulattoes. 

I  have  stated  that  the  Portuguese  royal  family 
passed  to  Brazil  (then  a  Portuguese  colony)  in  1807, 
and  that  in  1822  Brazil  declared  itself  independent, 
and  named  the  king's  son  (a  Liberal  prince)  its  first 
emperor.  Liberalism  and  Freemasonry  had,  there- 
fore, a  favourable  soil  in  Brazil,  and,  though  the 
milder  circumstances  gave  them  a  less  anticlerical 
tone  than  was  usual,  they  made  considerable  progress. 
Dawson  observes  that  in  the  seventies  "the  lower 
ranks  of  the  priesthood  were  uneducated,  and  real 
interest  in  religion  had  largely  been  confined  to 
women  and  the  lower  classes  "  ("  The  South  American 
Republic,"  p.  484).  At  the  election  of  1881  there 
were  sixty-eight  Liberals  returned  against  fifty-four 
Conservatives.     The  situation  was  peculiar  from  the 

1  The  reader  must  remember  that,  according  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  civil  marriage  is  invalid  in  all  Catholic  countries  where  the 
decree  of  the  Council  of  Trent  is  promulgated ;  and  it  is  always  a 
mortal  sin  for  a  Roman  Catholic.  The  institution  of  civil  marriage 
is,  therefore,  a  most  important  indication. 


108     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

extent  to  which  the  cultivated  seceders  from  Rome 
embraced  Positivism.  Nowhere  in  the  world  have 
the  followers  of  Auguste  Comte  obtained  the  power 
that  they  exercised  in  Brazil  at  that  time.  There  was 
a  Positivist  centre  in  the  Camera,  with  a  strong 
following  in  the  country,1  and  measures  that  the  clergy 
strongly  opposed  were  successfully  carried.  In  1888, 
when  deputies  complained  that  they  could  not  take  the 
oath,  the  Camera  declared  it  to  be  non-obligatory 
for  any  who  described  themselves  as  non-Catholic. 
Rodrigues  explains  that  the  vogue  of  Positivism  was 
due  to  the  mathematical  and  scientific  schools  that 
arose  in  the  new  regard  for  culture,  and  that  were 
largely  captivated  by  the  ideals  of  Comte.  The  first 
Positivist  society  was  founded  in  Brazil  in   1876  ;  by 

1 88 1  they  had  twenty  members  in  the  Camera,  and  in 

1882  these  were  increased  to  forty-five. 

The  revolution  of  1889,  when  the  emperor  was 
peacefully  deposed  (largely  on  account  of  the  clerical 
intrigues  of  his  daughter),  and  the  United  States  of 
Brazil  set  up,  was  very  largely  due  to  their  influence. 
Dawson  attributes  the  spread  of  Republican  ideas  in 
the  army,  which  determined  the  change  of  government, 
to  the  writings  of  the  Positivist  Professor  Benjamin 
Constant.  At  all  events  the  new  constitution,  no  less 
than  the  dismissal  of  the  Catholic  ruler,  shows  the 
conspicuous  preponderance  of  anticlerical  elements. 
The  Church  was  disestablished,  liberty  of  all  cults 
assured,  civil  marriage  instituted,  and  the  claims  of 
the  clergy  almost  entirely  ignored.  Besides  illiterates, 
mendicants  and  soldiers  in  actual  service,  all  monks 
were  excluded  from  the  exercise  of  the  suffrage,  on 
account  of  their  vow  of  obedience  to  a  superior. 

The  persistence  of  such  measures  to  our  own  time, 
distasteful  as  they  are  to  the  hierarchy,  is  ample  proof 
1  See  "  Religioes  Acatholicas  no  Brazil,"  by  J.  C.  Rodrigues  (1904). 


SPANISH   AMERICA  109 

that  the  majority  of  the  electors — the  literate  males 
over  twenty — remain  outside  the  Church  ;  and  they 
are  reinforced  by  some  150,000  Protestants  (there  are 
70,000  Germans  in  Brazil)  and  50,000  Maronites 
(Syrian  Catholics).  The  mass  of  the  people  remain 
Roman  Catholic,  in  their  peculiar  way,  but  in  the 
seaport  towns,  which  are  mainly  white,  the  Church 
has  lost  effective  control.  So  long  as  it  can  resist  the 
education  of  the  natives,  and  the  Liberals  are  so  little 
in  earnest  about  it,  the  Church  will  retain  its  power 
over  the  illiterate  and  grossly  ignorant  14,000,000, 
with  a  small  minority  of  the  educated.  Brazil  has  the 
unhappy  distinction  of  being  illiterate  to  the  extent 
of  84  per  cent,  of  its  population,  yet  only  2  per  cent, 
of  its  population  attends  school  (as  against  10  per 
cent,  in  the  Argentine  Republic).  The  difficulties  of 
schooling  in  so  wide  a  territory,  with  so  high  a  pro- 
portion of  uncivilised  Indians  and  negroes,  are  very 
great ;  but  the  work  proceeds  slowly,  and  anticlerical 
propaganda  follows  in  its  wake.  Travellers  find  the 
same  indifference  to  religion  and  hostility  to  the  clergy 
as  amongst  the  illiterate  peasants  of  Spain.  The 
better  Indians  and  half-castes  are  beginning  to  realise 
how  the  clergy  have  refused  education,  and  hindered 
their  development.  The  negroes  are  learning  that, 
through  the  supineness  of  the  priests,  they  remained 
slaves  longer  in  Brazil  than  in  any  other  country 
(until  1 871).  For  our  purpose  it  is  enough  to  find 
the  anti-Catholic  element  so  strongly  entrenched  in 
the  voting  class.  Rome  has  lost  power  and  educated 
followers  to  the  same  extent  as  in  Mexico.1 

1  Mr  Isaacson  writes  in  his  "Rome  in  many  Lands":  "Of  the 
one-fifth  [?]  who  are  educated  only  the  smallest  proportion  adhere 
to  any  form  of  religion  whatever.  Statesmen,  lawyers,  physicians, 
army  and  navy  officials  have  almost  to  a  man  rejected  the  historic 
Christ,  and  have  turned  to  infidelity  and  Positivism.     In  one  city 


110     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 


THE   ARGENTINE    REPUBLIC 

Third  in  the  magnitude  of  its  population  amongst 
the  Spanish-American  states,  the  Argentine  Repub- 
lic presents  a  more  interesting  problem,  from  our 
point  of  view,  from  the  smallness  of  the  indigenous 
elements  within  its  frontiers.  Of  its  5,500,000  people 
only  some  30,000  are  Indians;  though  this  feature  is 
somewhat  balanced  by  the  presence  of  500,000  Italian 
and  200,000  Spanish  immigrants,  generally  of  the 
poor  and  illiterate  class.  The  standard  of  literacy 
is  one  of  the  highest  amongst  the  southern  states,  and 
the  work  of  education  is  being  prosecuted  with  great 
energy  and  wisdom.  Of  its  population  over  the  age 
of  six  some  50  per  cent,  can  read.  There  are  several 
universities,  and  an  ample  provision  of  secondary 
colleges  and  educative  institutions.  Primary  educa- 
tion receives  now  the  closest  attention,  and  there  are 
540,000  pupils — or  45  per  cent,  of  the  total  number  of 
children  of  school  age — enrolled  in  its  elementary 
schools. 

The  result  of  this  spread  of  education  furnishes  a 
remarkable  confirmation  of  the  ominous  law  we  seem 
compelled  to  formulate  ;  that  Rome's  rule  in  the  Latin 
world  is  over  the  illiterate,  and  largely  ceases  when 
they  become  literate.  It  is  true  that  the  Church  is 
established  by  law  ;  though  all  other  cults  are  free, 
civil  marriage  has  been  instituted  since  1888,  and 
education  is  secular  as  well  as  free  and  compulsory. 
But  the  Argentine  Republic  probably  surpasses  any 

with  a  population  of  35,000  after  careful  investigation  less  than  200 
could  be  found  in  full  communion  with  the  Roman  Church" 
(p.  160).  He  quotes  the  Catholic  Bishop  of  San  Paulo,  saying  in 
an  official  paper :  "  Brazil  has  no  longer  any  faith.  Religion  is 
a  most  extinct  here." 


SPANISH  AMERICA  111 

of  the  other  Spanish- American  lands  in  the  amount  of 
active  hostility  to  Catholicism  in  it. 

Buenos  Aires,  the  capital,  with  a  population  of 
over  1,000,000,  is  an  intense  centre  of  heresy  of  one 
kind  or  another.  The  Freethinkers  have  a  journal 
(El  Progreso),  and  a  "  Biblioteca  de  la  Federacion 
Anticlerical  Intransigente  del  Libre  Pensamiento," 
whose  booklets  circulate  by  the  thousand.  In  1906 
the  Radical  heretics  of  all  camps  (Freethinkers, 
Spiritualists,  Positivists,  etc.)  held  a  congress  at 
Buenos  Aires  that  threw  some  light  on  the  power  of 
the  anti-papal  forces  in  South  America.  Its  meetings 
in  the  Teatro  Argentino  were  crowded  with  delegates 
from  all  the  republics,  and  were  supported  by  men 
like  Vice-Admiral  Howard,  Senor  Soto  and  Senor 
Alvarez  (of  the  Council  of  War),  and  Senor  Lugones 
(Inspector  of  the  National  Schools).  The  President 
of  Guatemula  telegraphed  to  them  an  assurance  of  the 
"  ardent  enthusiasm  "  with  which  he  and  the  Liberals 
of  Guatemala  hailed  the  congress  ;  and  a  message  of 
warm  support  came  also  from  the  President  of  Uruguay. 
It  was  notable,  too,  that  the  women  of  South  America 
took  an  active  part  in  the  holding  of  the  congress. 
The  "  Women's  Committee,"  of  which  the  list  is  found 
in  El  Progreso,  included  fifty  members,  many  of  them 
being  amongst  the  foremost  women  writers  of  South 
America  ;  and  they  were  much  in  evidence  at  the 
congress.  Twelve  South  American  journals  also 
supported  this  very  explicitly  anti-papal  demonstration. 

Freemasonry  in  the  Argentine  Republic  is  not  only 
very  powerful,  but  plainly  acknowledges  its  hostility 
to  the  Church.  According  to  an  official  list  that  I 
have  been  able  to  see,  there  are  ninety-one  Masonic 
lodges  in  the  republic  (many  of  them  with  a  large 
membership).  The  whole  of  these  have  been  re- 
presented at  the  Freethinking  anti-papal  congresses. 


112     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

In  addition,  the  Church  in  the  Argentine  is  now  facing 
the  menace  of  a  rising  Socialist  movement,  that  makes 
much  progress  amongst  the  working  men  and  women. 
In  1902,  when  a  projected  divorce  law  was  in  the 
Chamber,  the  meetings  of  the  Catholic  women  in  op- 
position to  it  were  answered  by  meetings  of  Socialist 
women,  and  the  Bill  narrowly  escaped  passing  into 
law  (by  two  votes).  It  was  a  test  question,  and  re- 
vealed the  complete  division  of  forces  in  regard  to 
religion. 

When  we  reflect  further  that  there  are  in  the 
Argentine  Republic  only  1019  churches  (according  to 
the  latest  enumeration  I  can  find — 1895)  we  realise 
the  enormous  losses  of  the  Church.  This  means  one 
Catholic  church  to  about  5000  people !  As  there 
are  only  some  30,000  Indians  in  the  republic,  and 
about  1,000,000  Spaniards  and  Italians,  the  figure 
shows  a  remarkable  decay  of  Catholicism.  Incident- 
ally, it  throws  some  light  on  census  declarations  of 
religious  belief.  At  the  date  (1895)  when  the  number 
of  Catholic  churches  was  returned  as  1019,  and  the 
number  of  the  white  population  as  4,044,911,  the 
census  results  gave  the  number  of  Roman  Catholics 
as  3,921,136  (with  32,000  Protestants  and  Jews)! 
Such  figures  are  ludicrous.  As  was  stated  in  an 
Argentine  journal  at  the  time,  the  natives  merely 
mean  that  they  are  neither  Protestants  nor  Jews. 
The  educated  citizens  are  divided  as  is  usual,  and  in 
this  case  the  anticlericals  have  a  larger  following  than 
elsewhere. among  the  workers  and  the  women.  An 
English  merchant  who  has  spent  many  years  in  the 
Argentine  tells  me  that  the  men  have  overwhelmingly 
abandoned  the  Roman  Catholic  faith. 


SPANISH   AMERICA  113 


COLOMBIA 

Colombia,  with  a  population  of  4,250,000,  is  one  of 
the  states  in  which  the  indigenous  element  includes 
some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  uncivilised  Indians. 
Its  history  shows  a  long  and  bitter  struggle  between 
clericals  and  anticlericals,  in  which  the  latter  have 
frequently  had  the  advantage.  The  republic  was 
formed  by  the  great  Liberal  Bolivar  in  1822,  after 
a  three  years'  war  of  independence,  and  the  familiar 
struggle  dragged  on  for  many  decades.  By  1862  the 
Liberals  became  powerful  enough  to  disestablish  the 
Church,  confiscate  monastic  property,  disfranchise 
the  clergy,  and  set  up  secular  schools.  The  strength 
of  the  seceders  from  Rome  may  be  estimated  from 
the  fact  that  they  maintained  these  features  of  the 
constitution  for  twenty-two  years.  The  most  violent 
efforts  were  made  by  the  clergy  to  overthrow  their 
opponents.  Parents  were  excommunicated  who  sent 
their  children  to  the  government  schools,  and  in  1876 
the  clericals  even  ventured  upon  an  unsuccessful 
revolution.  It  was  not  until  1885  that  the  clergy 
were  readmitted  to  the  franchise. 

Liberalism  maintains  its  strong  position  amongst 
the  educated,  but  the  elementary  instruction  is  poorly 
provided,  and  secondary  schools  are  very  largely 
controlled  by  the  religious  bodies.  The  Church  of 
Rome  is  the  established  religion  of  the  country — 
though  other  religions  are  freely  permitted — and  rules 
the  great  mass  of  people.  One  of  the  chief  American 
writers  on  Colombia,  Mr  L.  Scraggs,  describes  the 
capital  of  Colombia  (Bogota)  as  the  most  conspicuous 
in  America  for  the  number  of,  and  attendance  at,  its 
religious  ceremonies.  But  he  adds  that  "there  is 
more  drinking  and  general    dissipation  amongst  the 

H 


114     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

lower  classes  on  that  day  than  on  any  other."1  The 
situation  is,  in  a  word,  that  the  Church  still  controls 
the  sensual  and  illiterate  masses,  but  is  held  in  check 
by  a  powerful  body  of  seceders  amongst  the  educated. 
But  even  the  Catholicism  of  the  mass  of  the  people 
must  be  to  a  very  great  extent  only  nominal,  as  in 
the  Argentine.  The  population  includes  200,000 
uncivilised  and  100,000  semi-civilised  Indians,  and 
even  when  we  set  these  entirely  aside,  the  number  of 
churches  and  chapels  (1026  in  1894)  only  amounts  to 
one  for  every  3700  people ! 

A  Catholic  Colombian  lawyer,  J.  P.  Restrepo, 
issued  in  1881  a  large  work  on  the  legal  grievances 
of  his  co-religionists.  In  a  preliminary  letter  the 
Bishop  of  Antiquoia  complains  bitterly  of  "  the  cult  of 
matter  set  up  by  the  social  institutions  of  the  age," 
the  "moral  and  intellectual  prostration,"  and  "the 
struggle  against  the  Church  that  now  comes  from  the 
powerful  of  the  age."  The  author  himself  describes 
the  situation  as  one  of  "permanent  persecution  of  the 
Church  "  ("  La  Iglesia  y  el  Estado  en  Colombia,"  p.  vi.). 
The  anticlerical  forces  have  certainly  not  diminished 
since  1881,  as  Aubert  shows  in  his  "  Nouvelles 
Ameriques"  (1901). 


URUGUAY 

Uruguay  is  another  republic  where  active  hostility 
to  Rome  is  conspicuous  and  successful.  Its  population 
is  little  over  1,000,000,  and  is  largely  made  up  of 
immigrant  Italians,  Spaniards  and  Brazilians,  but  it 
has  one  of  the  largest  and  most  industrious  anti-papal 
bodies  in  America.  Founded  at  Monte  Video  in 
1900,  the  Associacion  de  Propaganda  Liberal  (in  the 
1  "  The  Colombian  and  Venezuelan  Republics,'  p.  98. 


SPANISH    AMERICA  115 

strictest  anti-  Roman  sense)  had  1500  militant  members 
in  1903,  and  fifty-four  branches  in  various  parts  of 
Uruguay.  It  issues  a  weekly  [El Libre  Pensamiento), 
with  a  circulation  of  several  thousands,  and  monthly 
brochures  of  which  it  had  sold  350,000  copies  in  a 
few  years  at  the  end  of  1906. 

In  Uruguay,  indeed,  the  colorados  (Liberals)  have 
been  in  power  almost  continuously  for  more  than 
thirty  years.  The  constant  outbreaks  of  hostilities 
are  generally  attempts  by  the  blancos  to  recover  by  the 
weapons  of  the  illiterate  peasants  what  they  are  not 
strong  enough  to  secure  at  the  polls.  Of  the  voters 
the  Liberals  have  the  support  of  40  per  cent,  and 
their  opponents  35  per  cent.1  The  rest  are  either 
foreigners  or  indifferentists.  The  anticlericals  thus 
predominate  in  the  towns  (the  educated  centres)  and 
the  clericals  in  the  country,  and  war  is  constantly 
threatened.  The  blancos  rebelled  in  1897,  when  they 
were  appeased  by  being  allowed  more  representatives 
in  Parliament,  and  in  1903,  when  they  drew  up  an 
army  of  5000  men  against  the  dominant  clericals.2 
At  present,  Martin  says,  the  blancos  are  waiting  for 
further  funds  from  Europe — an  interesting  sidelight 
on  the  situation — to  renew  the  struggle.  Clearly,  the 
Church  has  lost  the  allegiance  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  educated  Uruguayans.  I  have  already  mentioned 
that  the  president  sent  a  telegram  of  adhesion  to  the 
Freethought  Congress  at  Buenos  Aires  in  1906. 


GUATEMALA 

Guatemala,  with  a  population  of  1,842,144,  is  Indian 
to  the  extent  of  60  per  cent,  and  half-caste  for  the 

1  Martin's  "Through  Five  Republics"  (1905). 

2  "  Los  Pueblos  Hispano-Amcricanos,"  R.  Beltran  Rozpide  (1907). 


116     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

greater  part  of  the  remainder.  I  have  already 
observed  that  there  are  keen  rebels  against  the 
Church  amongst  these  Indians  and  half-castes,  when 
they  are  educated,  but  their  cultural  condition  in 
Guatemala  is  very  low.  The  illiterates  are  90  per 
cent,  of  the  population,  and  only  2  per  cent,  are  found 
in  elementary  schools.  Amongst  the  small  cultivated 
population  the  Church  has  lost  very  heavily.  No 
religious  communities  are  allowed  in  the  country,  and 
all  cults  are  free.  President  Cabrera  was  one  of  those 
who  supported  the  anti-papal  congress  at  Buenos 
Aires  in  1906.  There  are  only  12,000  whites  in 
Guatemala ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  great  numbers 
of  the  Indians  are  below  the  level  of  all  serious 
religion. 


ECUADOR 

In  Ecuador,  whose  population  of  1,250,000  (re- 
putedly) is  usually  counted  Catholic,  there  are  some 
200,000  Indians  without  a  tincture  of  civilisation  or 
Christianity,  500,000  with  a  tincture,  and  450,000 
mestizos  with  a  larger  tincture.  There  are  only  about 
100,000  whites.  The  people  are  illiterate  to  the  ex- 
tent of  more  than  90  per  cent.,  and  the  school  popula- 
tion is  very  low.  Ecuador  was  the  only  republic  to 
condole  with  the  Pope  in  1870.  But  with  education 
the  rebellion  grows.  Civil  marriage,  the  bane  of  the 
clergy,  is  instituted,  and  "the  circumstances,"  says 
Rozpide,  "  have  changed  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
Ecuadoreans  now,  in  spite  of  the  violent  and  natural 
opposition  of  the  clergy,  can  have  civil  marriage 
before  the  officials  both  in  the  towns  and  the  rural 
parishes"  (p.  192).  The  educated  men  are  pre- 
dominantly anticlerical.      Half  the   natives    have    no 


SPANISH   AMERICA  117 

Christian  creed,  and  the  remainder,  it  is  said,  worship 
the  dragon  as  freely  as  the  archangel  on  their  altar- 
pieces.1 

The  anticlerical  Veintimilla  led  a  revolt  in  1876, 
and  became  president  in  1877.  Many  anticlerical 
measures  were  passed,  but  he  showed  symptoms  of 
dictatorial  ambition,  and  was  beaten  in  1883  by  an 
amalgamation  of  Catholics  and  constitutional  Liberals. 
The  parties  have  alternated  in  power  (and  in  military 
opposition)  since  that  time,  but  education  has  been 
laicised,  tithes  abolished,  the  Church  brought  under 
the  control  of  the  State,  and  the  founding  of  new 
religious  communities  and  immigration  of  foreign 
monks  forbidden.  The  latter  measures  were  passed 
in  1904,  and  reflect  the  present  situation.  More 
recently  the  president  has  urged  a  scheme  for  again 
disestablishing  the  Church. 


CUBA 

Cuba  is,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  one  of  the 
least  Roman  Catholic  of  the  Spanish-American 
countries.  The  nearness  of  the  political  struggle  with 
Spain  to  our  own  time  has  kept  alive  the  opposition 
to  Spanish  religion.  There  is,  says  an  American 
writer,  "an  almost  universal  indifference  to  religion 
apparent  everywhere  in  Cuba."2  One  finds  towns 
of  from  10,000  to  30,000  inhabitants  with  only  one 
chapel,  the  writer  says,  and  the  priests  explain  that 
the  Cubans  are  indifferent  to  religion  and  will  not 
build  chapels.  As  far  back  as  1883  there  were  166 
Masonic  lodges  in  Cuba,3  and  they  counted  for  much 

1  Stanford's  Geography,  "  South  America  "  :  an  admirable  authority 
on  native  religion  in  South  America. 

2  Missionary  Review  of  the  World  (April  1902). 

3  "La  Massoneda  en  Espana,"  by  Tirado  y  Rojas  (1893). 


118  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

in  the  rebellion.  The  brutal  methods  of  the  Catholic 
Spaniards  to  suppress  the  rebellion  did  not  improve 
the  condition  of  the  Church  ;  nor  does  the  free  inter- 
course with  the  United  States  to-day.  Catholicism 
has  lost  its  hold  on  the  better  class  (though  this  is 
sadly  decimated  by  the  protracted  war),  and  has  only 
a  feeble  control,  with  its  scanty  chapels  and  clergy, 
over  the  1,878,951  people — 64  per  cent,  of  whom, 
however,  are  illiterate. 


PERU 

The  population  of  Peru  (4,609,999 — in  theory) 
consists  to  the  extent  of  57  per  cent,  of  native  Indians, 
who  are  described  as  nearly  all  Christians,  but  little 
civilised ;  though  Carpenter  describes  some  350,000 
Indians,  at  least,  as  entirely  non-Christian  and  un- 
civilised. The  half-castes  form  a  further  23  per  cent, 
of  the  population.  The  cultural  level  is  very  low,  and 
even  to-day  only  2*86  per  cent,  of  its  population 
attends  its  schools,  such  as  they  are.  The  statistics 
of  vice  (of  illegitimate  births  and  drink)  are  amongst 
the  worst  in  America,  and  the  country  generally  is 
very  retrograde.  It  is  now  the  only  republic  that 
has  not  granted  liberty  of  cults,  though  a  certain 
liberty  exists  in  practice.  The  Liberals  are  not  so 
powerful  in  Peru,  though  of  late  years  they  have  won 
some  measures  (such  as  the  recognition  of  the  civil 
marriage  of  non-Catholics).  Dawson  ("  South  Ameri- 
can Republics,"  ii.  132)  says  that  they  do  not  find 
clericalism  so  onerous  as  in  the  other  republics,  and 
so  create  less  trouble.  Of  late  years,  however,  more 
Radical  parties,  more  definitely  anticlerical,  are  growing 
in  power,  and  the  prestige  of  the  Church  is  more  seri- 
ously threatened.     The  Liberals  unite  with  moderate 


SPANISH    AMERICA  119 

Conservatives  against  them,  and  there  is  not  the  clear 
clerical  issue  that  one  finds  in  other  states.  However, 
the  history  of  Peru  shows  much  the  same  alternation 
of  power  and  continued  strength  of  the  anticlerical 
party  amongst  the  educated  population  as  in  the 
rest  of  South  America.  Mr  Isaacson  observes  that 
the  educated  Peruvians  are  generally  "sceptics  and 
materialists." 


CHILE 

In  Chile  the  Liberal  party  has  greater  traditions  of 
success  than  in  Peru.  From  the  time  of  the  national 
assembly  that  terminated  the  War  of  Independence  in 
1822  there  have  been  bitter  and  equal  contests  between 
the  clericals  and  anticlericals.1  A  coalition  of  Liberals 
(whom  Carpenter  describes  as  more  numerous  to-day 
than  the  Conservatives)  and  Conservatives  ruled  from 
1 86 1  to  1874,  and  the  anticlericals  merged  into  the 
more  radical  Liberal  Democratic  party.  In  1881 
the  anticlericals  were  powerful  enough  to  institute 
civil  marriage  and  registration,  the  secularisation  of 
cemeteries  and  freedom  of  religion.  Domingo  Santa 
Maria  held  office  for  five  years  in  face  of  a  fierce 
clerical  opposition  and  was  succeeded  by  another 
Liberal,  Balmaceda.  In  the  civil  war  that  Balmaceda's 
conduct  provoked  in  1890  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  clericals  had  the  support  of  the  dissentient 
Liberals.  A  Liberal  president  was  again  elected  in 
1 90 1,  but  the  actual  president  is  Catholic. 

However,  the  political  struggle  in  Chile  is  not  so 

much  one  of  clericals  and  anticlericals,  as  of  Radicals 

and  moderates,  and  merely  reveals  the  usual  strong 

body  of  seceders  from  Rome  amongst  the  educated. 

1  See  M.  R.  Wright's  "Republic  of  Chile," 


120     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

The  Church  rules  the  vast  bulk  of  the  illiterates,  and 
only  37  per  cent,  of  the  population  (3,205,992)  attend 
school.  Some  50,000  of  the  natives  are  classed  as 
bravos,  or  un-Christian  and  uncivilised. 


VENEZUELA 

Venezuela  is  one  of  the  three  states  that  were 
wrested  from  Spain  by  the  great  Liberal  Bolivar  in 
the  early  wars,  and  has  had  a  powerful  anticlerical 
party  from  the  start.  There  has  been  the  usual  con- 
flict, with  the  usual  alternation  of  success.  Guzman 
Blanco,  another  strong  anticlerical,  ruled  from  1870 
to  1889  (personally,  or  through  subordinates),  and  has 
left  his  impression  on  the  legislature.  The  whites  are 
divided  to-day  in  the  customary  way,  but  the  popula- 
tion (2,600,000)  is  largely  made  up  of  Indians  (only 
partly  civilised),  half-castes,  negroes,  and  mulattoes, 
and  is  generally  illiterate. 


BOLIVIA 

Bolivia  also  has  a  high  proportion  of  Indians 
(920,000),  half-castes  (486,000)  and  negroes,  in  its  pop- 
ulation of  2,250,000.  Culture  is  at  the  lowest  level, 
only  2  per  cent,  of  the  inhabitants  attending  school. 
Yves  Guyot  unkindly  remarks  that  "its  public 
libraries  contain  only  a  few  Jesuitical  works  :  the  rest 
have  been  stolen."  Church  and  State  were  separated 
in  1862,  and  convents  suppressed;  and  an  armed 
revolt  excited  by  the  clergy  was  crushed  by  the 
Liberals.  The  ignorant  mass  of  the  people  may  be 
described  as  more  or  less  Catholic,  but  whole  tribes 
of  the  Indians  are  devoid  of  religion,  and  heresy  is 
very  advanced  amongst  the  educated  minority.     Even 


SPANISH    AMERICA  121 

on  the  census  papers  some  24,000  described  them- 
selves as  non-Catholic.  There  is  at  least  the  usual 
majority  of  seceders  amongst  the  educated  adult 
males. 


HONDURAS 

The  population  of  Honduras  (587,500)  consists 
mainly  of  aborigines  and  half-castes,  in  every  degree 
of  uncultivation.  The  small  educated  white  minority 
has  the  same  historic  anticlerical  party  as  the  other 
republics.  All  religions  are  free,  and  the  Church 
receives  no  support  from  the  State.  Education  is 
secular,  as  well  as  free  and  obligatory,  but  the  school 
population  is  only  7  per  cent,  of  the  whole. 


SALVADOR 

The  population  of  Salvador  (a  little  over  1,000,000) 
includes  only  about  100,000  whites  (or  20,000  pure 
whites),  with  250,000  Indians.  The  rest  are  mestizos 
(half-caste).  But  the  educated  minority  have  a  strong 
anticlerical  element.  Monasteries  are  suppressed, 
civil  marriage  is  instituted,  and  education  is  in  the 
hands  of  lay  teachers.  Culture  is  very  low,  however, 
and  the  masses  are  nominally  Catholic. 


SANTO    DOMINGO    AND    HAITI 

The  population  of  Santo  Domingo  (500,000)  and  of 
Haiti  (1,425,000)  are  almost  entirely  black  or  mulatto. 
About  700  schools  suffice  for  the  two  republics.  The 
people  are  described  as  "nominally  Catholic,"  but  the 
blacks    are   addicted    to    the    darkest    and    grossest 


122     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

practices  of  their  native  religion.  There  are  only  a 
few  hundred  Europeans,  and  the  cultural  level  is  of 
the  lowest. 


NICARAGUA 

Nicaragua  has  a  population  of  500,000,  at  the  same 
very  low  cultural  level.  There  are  only  323  schools. 
The  mass  of  the  people  are  Indians,  negroes  and 
half-castes.  Indeed,  the  Europeans  only  number 
about  1200.  In  the  circumstances,  a  school  popula- 
tion of  17,000  is  promising.  But  many  tribes 
(amounting  to  40,000)  are  quite  uncivilised,  and  the 
vast  majority  are  grossly  ignorant. 


PARAGUAY 

Paraguay  (635,571 — mostly  Indians  and  mestizos) 
has  not  only  nearly  100,000  uncivilised  Indians,  but 
its  half-caste  population  has  largely  lapsed  from 
Catholicism  since  the  departure  of  the  Jesuits.  There 
are  a  few  hundred  whites,  and  the  country  has  been 
reduced  to  a  very  low  level  by  its  appalling  wars. 
About  400  schools,  of  a  kind,  are  attempting  to 
diminish  the  general  ignorance.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  population  has  never  been  Christian,  or  has 
ceased  to  be  ;  and  there  is  the  usual  Liberal  element. 


PANAMA 

Much  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  new  republic 
of  Panama.  Its  population  of  400,000  is  made  up 
of  Indians,  half-castes  and  negroes  (40,000),  at  all 
levels  of  uncultivation.  They  are  nominally  Roman 
Catholic.     The  whites  are  very  few  in  number. 


SPANISH   AMERICA  123 


COSTA    RICA 

Costa  Rica,  with  its  386  primary  schools  to 
330,000  people,  is  in  a  slightly  better  position.  Some 
4000  of  its  Indians  are  bravos,  and  there  is  a  fair 
proportion  of  negroes  and  half-castes.  But  the  white 
population  is  large.  The  Catholic  Church  is  estab- 
lished, and  has  the  adhesion  of  the  vast  majority,  but 
other  cults  are  free,  and  the  small  educated  minority 
shows  the  usual  division. 


THE    PHILIPPINES 

The  Philippine  Islands  may  be  associated  with 
the  South  American  races  as  the  last  fragment  of 
the  Spanish  Catholic  world.  Missionaries  describe 
the  islands  as  predominantly  Roman  Catholic  in  the 
northern  half  (seven  tribes),  pagan  in  the  centre 
(2,500,000)  and  Mohammedan  in  the  southern  half 
(seven  tribes).  The  educated  Spaniards  in  the  colony 
are  divided  into  priests  and  monks  and  Freemasons. 
"  The  first  thing  we  send  to  the  Philippines  are  monks, 
who  are  insatiable,"  said  the  Catholic  statesman 
Castelar.  Then  come  military  men  and  officials, 
who  generally  joined  the  180  Masonic  lodges  of  the 
islands  (with  25,000  initiates).  The  Church  is  said 
to  have  derived  11 3,000,000  pesetas  a  year  from  the 
colony :  the  State  only  66,000,000.  Educated  Filipinos 
naturally  rebelled  against  this  kind  of  religion,  and, 
save  for  a  mass  of  uneducated  natives,  who  follow 
whatever  religion  is  imposed  on  them  until  it  is 
displaced  by  another,  the  islands  are  lost  to  Catholicism. 
The  total  population  is  unknown,  and  may  be  any- 
thing  between   6,000,000  and    12,000,000,   of  whom 


124  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

between     1,000,000     and     2,000,000    are    nominally 

Catholic. 

•  ••••••• 

To  sum  up  the  facts  in  regard  to  the  religious 
condition  of  the  Spanish-American  world  is  no  light 
task.  Even  from  the  better-ordered  republics  like 
Mexico  the  official  returns  are  confessedly  very  im- 
perfect, especially  in  regard  to  religion,  literacy  and 
extent  of  population.  Taking  an  average  of  the 
estimates  given,  we  may  assign  to  these  races  a  total 
population  of  about  65,000,000.  Of  these  at  least 
53,000,000  are  quite  illiterate  and  densely  ignorant, 
passing  in  large  numbers  below  the  vague  line  of  what 
we  call  civilisation.  One  would  not  grudge  the 
Vatican  the  allegiance  of  these  53,000,000  en  bloc,  but 
certain  reserves  must  obviously  be  made.  Several 
millions  are  quite  uncivilised,  and  cannot  be  included 
in  any  serious  religious  statistics.  Further,  we  saw 
that  in  many  of  these  states  there  is  not  a  church  to 
4000  people,  and,  in  such  scattered  rural  populations, 
this  means  that  the  greater  part  can  only  be  called 
Catholic  in  a  somewhat  ludicrous  sense.  With  these 
reserves,  and  recollecting  the  indifference  we  have 
found  among  the  urban  natives  in  many  parts,  we 
may  assign  some  48,000,000  of  this  wholly  illiterate, 
childlike  and  imperfectly  civilised  mass  to  the  Vatican. 
And  that  is  more  than  one-fourth  of  its  entire 
following ! 

On  the  best  figures  available,  and  taking  the 
average  where  they  differ,  I  find  that  81  or  82 
per  cent,  of  the  whole  Spanish- American  popula- 
tion is  illiterate.  This  leaves  about  12,000,000  or 
13,000,000  literates,  including  the  very  large  per- 
centage of  foreign  merchants,  etc.  In  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  the  Spanish-American  world  about 
8,000,000   of    these    will    be    adult    males,    and   the 


SPANISH   AMERICA  125 

serious  question  for  the  social  observer  is,  how  far 
the  Church  of  Rome  has  retained  the  allegiance  of 
these,  as  (Germans,  etc.,  apart)  they  are  nearly  all 
of  Catholic  origin.  We  saw  that  (as  Carpenter 
observes  in  his  "  South  America")  the  voting  strength 
is  predominantly  anticlerical.  In  most  states  the 
clergy  can  only  obtain  power  by  summoning  to  arms 
the  ignorant  and  pugnacious  natives.  They  are  to 
a  great  extent  repressed  by  anticlerical  legislation  of 
long  standing.  I  do  not  see  how  this  can  be  under- 
stood if  less  than  5,000,000  of  the  adult  and  literate 
males  have  ceased  to  be  Catholic.  When  we  further 
take  into  account  the  secessions  among  the  literate 
women  (so  conspicuous  in  Brazil,  Uruguay,  Argentine, 
etc.),  the  growing  anticlericalism  amongst  the  illiterate 
workers  and  half-breeds,  the  rise  of  democratic  anti- 
clerical bodies,  and  the  immense  loss  of  natives  since 
the  fall  of  Spain  and  the  impoverishment  of  the  clergy, 
it  must  be  said  that  the  Church  has  lost  some  8,000,000 
followers  in  the  Spanish- American  world  in  the  course 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  is  losing  more  rapidly 
than  ever  in  the  twentieth.  And  of  the  50,000,000 
whom  we  may  with  some  show  of  decency  assign 
to  it,  90  per  cent,  are  illiterate,  and  are  amongst 
the  most  ignorant  peoples  of  the  civilised  world. 


SUMMARY    FOR    THE    LATIN    WORLD 

A  few  words  will  suffice  to  summarise  the  con- 
clusions to  which  we  are  impelled  by  this  mass 
of  indications  concerning  the  religious  condition 
of  the  Latin  world.  It  must  be  recollected,  how- 
ever, that  strict  formulae  correspond  very  ill  to  the 
fluidity  of  real  mental  life.  One  cannot  draw  a 
rigid  line  between  the  faithful  and  the  rebels  to  any 


126     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

creed,  and  this  is  especially  difficult  in  the  Latin 
nations.  Religion  being  so  largely  a  matter  of  com- 
pliance with  external  forms,  we  seem  at  first  to  have 
an  excellent  test  in  the  observance  of  these  forms 
(such  as  attendance  at  mass  on  Sundays),  but  such 
observance  is  found  to  have  innumerable  degrees, 
in  spite  of  the  drastic  Catholic  law,  and  is  often 
associated  with  other  unmistakable  signs  of  a  decay 
of  faith.  I  have  been  content  to  strike  off  those 
descendants  of  Catholic  parents  whom  it  is  clearly 
impossible  to  regard  any  longer  as  members  of  the 
Roman  Church,  from  their  defiance  of  its  gravest 
precepts,  their  active  hostility  to  its  interests  or  their 
complete  indifference  to  its  fate  at  critical  moments. 
I  leave  tens  of  millions  in  the  category  of  "  Catholic" 
who  would  certainly  fail  to  respond  to  any  serious  test. 
With  this  admonition  I  venture  to  tabulate  the  results 
of  my  inquiry  for  the  Latin  world  : 


Country 

Population 

Number  of 
Catholics 

Number  of 
Seceders 

France      . 

Italy 

Spain  and  Portugal 

Spanish  America  . 

39,250,000 
32,500,000 
24,000,00c 
65,000,000 

5,500,000 
26,000,000 
20,000,000 
50,000,000 

25,000,000 

6,000,000 
4,500,000 
8,000,000 

160,750,000 

101,500,000 

43,500,000  J 

1  Note  that  this  does  not  mean  43,500,000  non-Catholics.  I 
leave  out  of  account  here  the  many  millions  lost  to  the  Church  in 
France  before  1870,  and  the  uncivilised  millions  of  South  America, 
besides  immigrant  Protestants,  etc.  It  has  not  been  possible  to 
determine  the  proportion  of  the  loss  in  Italy,  Spain  and  America 
since  i860,  but  the  18,000,000  loss  indicated  belongs  overwhelm- 
ingly to  the  last  half  century.  In  each  case  native  seceders  put  the 
figures  higher  than  I  do. 


SPANISH   AMERICA  127 

In  the  light  of  the  preceding  study  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  before  long  the  Church  of  Rome  will 
have  lost  half  its  strength  in  the  "Catholic  countries" 
(taken  collectively).  But  the  numerical  statement, 
formidable  as  it  seems,  is  not  the  worst  indication 
of  the  Church's  loss.  For  all  impartial  observers  the 
relative  percentage  of  literates  amongst  the  faithful 
and  the  seceders  is  a  more  appalling  circumstance. 
In  each  country,  and  each  part  of  each  country, 
the  secessions  are  in  strict  proportion  to  the  spread 
of  education,  as  I  have  fully  shown.  The  number 
of  seceders  includes  only  a  very  small  percentage  of 
children  :  the  number  of  the  faithful  is  largely  built  up 
of  them.  The  seceders  are  literate  to  the  extent  of 
90  per  cent.,  and  include  the  great  majority  of  the 
educated  men  in  the  whole  Latin  world.  The  faithful 
are  illiterate  to  the  extent  of  85  per  cent. ;  grossly 
ignorant  to  the  extent  of  70  per  cent.  ;  imperfectly 
civilised  to  the  extent  of  at  least  20  per  cent. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   ENGLISH-SPEAKING  WORLD— GREAT  BRITAIN 

THERE  is  a  touch  of  pathos  in  the  consolation 
that  Latin  Catholic  writers  have  found  amid 
the  desolation  that  has  fallen  upon  their 
Church.  From  Paris  to  Rome,  from  Madrid  to  Buenos 
Aires,  the  comforting  assurance  circulates  that  the 
Church  has  regained,  across  the  Reformation  frontier, 
all  that  she  has  lost  in  Catholic  lands.  Even  so 
sagacious  an  observer  as  Ferdinand  Brunetiere  de- 
clared to  his  coreligionists,  after  a  visit  to  the  United 
States,  that  the  increase  of  Catholicism  in  that  country 
was  "  the  characteristic  phenomenon  of  the  end  of 
the  nineteenth  century  "  ;  while  England  is  regarded 
as  substantially  won  for  the  Vatican.  Is  not  the 
conclusion  forced  on  one  ?  There  were  not  more  than 
100,000  Catholics  in  the  United  States  or  in  England 
a  century  ago.  To-day,  they  say,  there  are  1,500,000 
in  England  and  10,000,000  in  the  United  States. 
Statistics  do  not  lie. 

Statistics  do  not  lie,  but  those  who  use  them  have 
been  known  to  convey  wholly  inaccurate  impressions 
with  them,  and  here  is  assuredly  one  of  the  most 
flagrant  cases  of  such  procedure.  The  English- 
speaking  nations  being  amongst  the  most  literate  in 
the  world,  any  large  gain  of  allegiance  in  them  would 
certainly  restore  the  social  balance  in  favour  of  the 
Vatican.  The  complete  liberty  and  the  pacific  conduct 
of  controversy  that  distinguish  them  would  make  such 
a  gain  yet  more  honouring  and  agreeable.  But  the 
truth  is  that,  throughout  the  English-speaking  world, 

128 


GREAT    BRITAIN  129 

the  losses  of  Rome  are  precisely  of  that  magnitude 
that  French  Catholics  ascribe  to  its  gains,  while  the 
real  gains  are  insignificant.  Apart  from  France,  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  has  lost  more  heavily  in  the 
English-speaking  world  than  it  has  done  in  the  Latin 
world. 

The  central  fact  of  the  situation,  when  we  survey- 
it  impartially  from  the  social  point  of  view,  is  the 
dispersal  of  the  Irish  throughout  the  Anglo-Saxon 
communities.  This  fully  accounts  for  the  apparent 
increase  of  Catholicism  in  England,  America  and 
Australia.  The  millions  that  have  appeared  in  these 
lands  owning  an  allegiance  to  the  Vatican  owe  their 
existence  to  no  subtle  magic,  but  to  a  process  that  is 
very  familiar  to  the  social  student — migration.  If 
1,000,000  Irish  Catholics  have  immigrated  into  England 
in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century,  it  can  hardly 
be  deemed  preternatural  that  the  Catholics  of  England 
to-day  number  1,250,000;  the  remarkable  thing  is 
that,  with  the  normal  growth  of  population,  they  do 
not  number  2,000,000  or  more.  So  in  regard  to  the 
United  States  and  Australia,  the  other  chief  destina- 
tions of  the  Irish  emigrants.  The  fact  is  that  in  1801 
the  population  of  Ireland  numbered  nearly  5,500,000. 
As  the  population  of  England  has  quadrupled  since 
that  date,  we  assume  the  same,  at  least — since  the 
present  deliberate  restriction  of  the  English  birth-rate 
does  not  extend  to  Ireland — for  the  people  of  the  sister 
isle.  But  the  actual  population  of  Ireland  is  4,458,775. 
Where  are  the  missing  1 8,000,000  ?  They  are  the  body 
of  the  Roman  Catholics  of  the  United  States  and 
England  to-day.  Add  to  them  a  constant  inpour- 
ing  of  French,  Italian  and  German  Catholics :  the 
descendants  of  the  Catholics  of  1800:  and  the  con- 
verts that  have  been  won  from  the  other  Churches. 
The  question  for  the  social  observer  then  becomes, 


130  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

not  "Where  have  the  Catholics  come  from?"  but 
"  Wherever  have  they  gone  to  ?  " 

This  must  be  the  leading  idea  of  any  serious  study 
of  Catholicism  in  the  English-speaking  world.  It  is 
usually  overlooked  by  the  Catholic  writer,  but  my 
aim  is  less  partial  and  more  scientific.  But  I  may 
briefly  dismiss  Ireland  itself  from  our  study  before  I 
proceed. 

Of  the  4,500,000  inhabitants  of  Ireland,  3,310,328 
are  described  as  Roman  Catholics.  This  is  the 
population  of  Roman  Catholic  descent,  and  certainly 
very  few  of  these  would  care  to  be  described  as  having 
left  the  Church.  Let  us  put  them  all  to  the  Catholic 
total ;  but  let  us  understand  on  what  condition  we 
do  it.  In  1900  the  number  of  Catholic  marriages  in 
Ireland  was  14,795  >  tne  number  of  non-Catholic 
marriages  was  6535.  That  is  by  no  means  the  pro- 
portion demanded  by  the  above  figures.  But  the  real 
situation  in  Ireland  cannot  be  expressed  in  figures.  I 
have  no  wish  to  reflect  on  my  father's  country,  but  it 
is  surely  notorious  that,  largely  literate  as  Ireland  is, 
it  is  one  of  the  most  uncultivated  and  ignorant  among 
the  literate  peoples.  The  elementary  education  given 
is  of  the  narrowest  type,  and  it  leads  to  no  further 
cultivation  at  all  for  the  vast  mass.  Poor,  light  of 
spirit,  little  interested  in  ideas,  having  the  most  meagre 
literature  in  the  world  in  proportion  to  their  literacy, 
geographically  isolated  from  more  progressive  peoples, 
despotically  ruled  by  a  very  numerous  and  generally 
ignorant  clergy,  the  beliefs  of  the  Irish  Catholics  are 
not  very  important  from  the  standpoint  of  this  essay. 
What  is  notable  is  that  amongst  the  more  alert  classes 
rebellion  is  steadily  growing.  Mr  McCarthy  ("  Priests 
and  People  in  Ireland,"  p.  577)  divides  the  Catholic 
population  into  ten  parts.  The  cultivated  tenth  go  to 
church,  but  it  is  "doubtful  if  any  of  them  really  and 


GREAT   BRITAIN  131 

fully  believe  in  what  the  priests  call  the  Faith."  No 
one  who  has  mixed  much  among  them,  or  read  their 
literature,  will  doubt  this,  with  a  little  modification. 
The  circulation  of  Mr  McCarthy's  own  works — one 
of  which  ran  to  a  tenth  edition  in  two  years — justifies 
it.  Two  further  tenths,  Mr  McCarthy  says,  fume 
against  the  clergy,  but  are  generally  orthodox.  The 
remaining  seven-tenths  are  quite  orthodox,  but 
culturally  negligible.  Mr  McCarthy  holds  that  they 
are  "going,  morally  and  intellectually,  from  bad  to 
worse." 

However,  few  of  them  leave  the  Church,  and  it 
is  entitled  to  claim  3,000,000  followers,  at  least,  in 
Ireland,  on  the  terms  I  have  indicated.  It  is  more 
interesting  to  follow  the  millions  who  have  quitted 
their  native  home,  and  entered  the  more  stimulating 
atmosphere  of  foreign  lands.  At  home  they  had 
priests  of  genial  temper  and  strong  political  sympathy, 
and  they  were,  as  a  rule,  ignorant  of  any  serious  alter- 
native to  Catholicism.  We  shall  see  what  happens 
when  they  pass  from  their  hothouse  of  faith  into  the 
normal  air  of  modern  life. 

Some  day,  perhaps,  a  historian  will  take  up  the 
graceful  pen  of  Gibbon,  and  write  the  full  story 
of  the  remarkable  spiritual  power  that  succeeded  to 
the  empire  of  the  Romans.  Not  the  least  interest- 
ing chapter  of  his  work  will  be  that  which  deals  with 
the  fortunes  of  the  Church  in  Britain  during  the 
nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries.  Possibly  he  will 
compare  the  episode  with  Julian's  brilliant  effort  to 
extend  the  frontier  of  the  empire  once  more  at  the 
very  time  when  it  was  crumbling  into  decay.  He 
will  at  least  tell  of  superb  generalship,  of  exalted 
legions,  of  an  incipient  triumph,  and  of  a  joyous 
illumination  of  the  Eternal  City ;  and  then  of  disaster 
and  failure,  of  the  dearth  of  generals  and  of  dispirited 


132     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

legions,  of  the  last  grim  concentration  in  face  of  the 
enemy. 

Little  more  than  ten  years  ago,  as  one  of  a  group 
of  priests,  I  listened  to  Bishop  Paterson  gravely  ex- 
pressing a  hope  that  the  conversion  of  England  would 
not  come  too  suddenly,  or  we  priests  would  be  over- 
whelmed in  the  flood  of  converts.    The  familiar  phrase 
is  heard  less  than   it  used  to  be   in   Roman   clerical 
circles ;  nay,    it  is  even  being  blamed  as  one  of  the 
causes  of  the  admitted  disaster.     About  the  very  time 
when  I  was  listening,  with  incipient  scepticism,  to  the 
naive  hopes  of  the  Bishop  of  Emmaus,   Lord  Braye 
was  writing  that  no  progress  could  be  made  until  that 
phrase  was  laid  aside  and  the  expectation  of  a  speedy 
and  large  change  in  English  feeling  was  abandoned. 
The  clergy  now  know  that  they  are  fighting  a  stern 
fight    to    preserve,   not   to    extend,  their  domain    in 
England.     They  can  count  to-day  barely  more  than 
one  half  the  number  they  should  have,  if  they  had 
merely  held  their  own,  without  making  a  single  con- 
vert.    The  Church  of  Rome  has  lost  more  heavily  in 
Great  Britain  than  in  any  other  country  except  France  ; 
and  in  no  other  case  is  it  so  easy  to  establish   and 
determine  its  loss  with  such  entire  certainty. 

The  chief  purpose  of  this  essay  is  to  estimate  the 
losses  that  the  Church  has  suffered  during  the  last 
half  century,  and  in  the  case  of  England  the  leakage 
has  occurred  almost  entirely  during  that  period.  But 
it  is  advisable  to  glance  at  the  earlier  half  century,  as 
we  have  done  in  other  cases,  in  order  to  understand 
the  situation  of  fifty  years  ago. 

The  estimates  of  the  Catholic  population  of  Great 
Britain  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
vary  between  50,000  and  100,000,  and  the  Catholic 
writer  accepts  one  or  other  version  according  to  the 
task  he  has  in  hand.     Through  the  dark  years  of  the 


GREAT   BRITAIN  133 

lamentable  prosecution  to  which  they  were  subjected 
many  thousands  of  Catholics  bravely  endured  their 
hardships,  and  remained  loyal  to  their  faith.  Lanca- 
shire had  a  large  native  Catholic  population  that  clung 
with  northern  stubbornness  to  its  beliefs,  and  sheltered 
the  outlawed  priests,  who  ministered  furtively  to  them. 
London,  too,  contained  a  good  sprinkling  of  Catholics. 
The  long-continued  coercion  was  wearing  them  down 
— the  Catholic  historians  admit  that  they  diminished 
in  number  in  the  course  of  the  eighteenth  century 
— but  they  were  more  numerous  than  is  generally 
believed.  An  official  return  that  was  made  to  the 
House  of  Lords  in  1780  put  the  number  at  69,376, 
and  that  figure  may  be  taken  as  a  minimal  expression 
of  their  strength.  It  was  not  yet  safe  for  many  to 
avow  their  belief  openly. 

In  1 79 1  the  Act  of  Toleration  was  passed,  and  their 
heaviest  burdens  were  removed.  Catholic  writers 
usually  treat  the  point  with  some  looseness  and  in- 
accuracy, because  they  are  always  bent  on  maintaining 
the  fiction  of  a  great  native  growth  of  Catholicism  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  One  would  be  glad  to  think 
that  a  mere  return  of  our  fathers  to  humane  feeling 
dictated  the  measure,  but  the  truth  is,  of  course,  that 
the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution  gave  a  new 
direction  to  their  ideas.  In  1789  the  stream  of 
refugees  set  in  from  France.  Catholicism  was  so 
essentially  one  with  French  royalism  that  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  nation  could  make  no  distinction.  In  its 
growing  hatred  of  the  anti-papal  Republicans  across 
the  Channel,  its  new  perception  of  the  charm  of 
French  character  and  its  warm  feeling  of  hospitality 
to  the  refugees,  England  lost  half  its  bitterness  against 
the  Church,  and  the  surviving  Catholics  moved  more 
freely.  The  culmination  of  the  Revolution  in  1792 
drove  out  a  further  army  of  Catholic  nobles  and  clergy, 


134     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

and  the  cause  of  the  Church  gained  proportionately 
in  England.  Abbot  Gasquet  says  that  8000  French 
priests  fled  to  England  in  1792,  and  that  collections 
were  made  for  them  in  every  (Protestant)  parish 
church  in  the  country.  The  effect  of  all  this  on  the 
fortunes  of  English  Catholicism  may  be  imagined. 
Milner's  biographer  (intent,  as  usual,  on  magnifying 
the  subsequent  native  growth)  says  there  may  have 
been  70,000  Catholics  in  England  in  1803.  There 
must  have  been  more  than  100,000.  The  French 
clergy  were  not  idle  during  their  ten  years'  stay  in 
England — many  remained  until  18 14 — and  there  had 
been  70,000  Catholics  in  1780.  Moreover,  the  emi- 
grations from  Ireland  increase  notably  after  the 
troubles  of  1798. 

Let  us  say  that  the  century  opened  with  100,000 
Catholics  in  this  country  and  a  quicker  vitality  amongst 
the  older  faithful.  By  18 14,  Gasquet  says,  there  were 
49,800  Catholics  in  London  alone,  with  thirty-one 
priests  and  eleven  chapels.  An  official  Roman  docu- 
ment puts  the  number  at  200,000  in  1826,  but  this 
seems  to  be  optimistic.  If  we  accepted  all  the  figures 
quoted  so  lightly  by  Abbot  Gasquet  it  would  be 
singularly  disastrous  for  his  cause.  He  says,  for 
instance,  that  Bishop  Griffiths  estimated  the  Catholic 
population  of  London  in  1829  at  146,000  (in  a  popula- 
tion of  1,500,000).  As  we  shall  see  that  they  do 
not  reach  that  number  to-day  (in  a  population  of 
6,000,000,  and  after  eighty  years  of  strenuous  pro- 
selytism)  the  inference  would  be  appalling.  How- 
ever, Catholicism  made  slow  and  stately  progress 
during  the  thirties  under  its  four  vicars  apostolic 
(increased  to  eight  in  1840),  and  its  quiet  and  rather 
Gallican  intellectual  leaders  (such  as  Lingard). 
Catholic  emancipation  was  won  in  1829,  and  by  1840 
there  were  463  chapels  in  England  and  Wales. 


GREAT   BRITAIN  135 

Then  there  set  in  the  famous  movement  from 
the  Anglican  Church  to  the  Roman  that  gave  rise 
to  all  the  inflated  hopes  of  the  following  decades. 
The  conversion  of  Newman  in  1845  gave  the  Church 
the  finest  advertisement  it  has  ever  had  in  England. 
Catholics  were  dazed  with  their  sudden  fortune.  In 
1850  we  find  a  list  to  200  converted  Anglican  clergy- 
men ;  before  the  end  of  the  century  Cardinal  Vaughan 
extended  the  list  to  556  (though  that  is  less  than 
the  number  of  French  priests  who  had  left  the 
Church  in  jive  years),  and  added  256  lawyers  (the 
next  most  susceptible  group,  it  appears)  and  physi- 
cians and  "about  a  hundred  admirals,  generals  and 
field  officers "  —  mainly  the  latter,  one  presumes. 
To  complete  the  ornamental  part  of  their  gains  dur- 
ing the  sixty  years  I  must  add  (from  Mr  Gordon 
Gorman's  "  Converts  to  Rome  ")  32  baronets  and  417 
members  of  the  nobility.  In  the  train  of  this  gilded 
band  went  a  large  number  of  ordinary  men  and 
women.  What  the  total  gain  to  the  Church  was  it  is 
impossible  to  estimate.  I  have  not  the  least  wish  to 
restrict  the  figures,  as — if  the  reader  will  pardon  the 
paradox  for  the  moment — the  larger  the  list  is  the 
heavier  will  prove  to  be  the  net  loss  of  the  Church. 
Mr  Gordon  Gorman  has  laboriously  compiled  a 
directory  of  converts.  He  describes  them,  somewhat 
airily,  as  numbering  "nearly  10,000  per  annum"  so 
late  as  1900,  when  the  stream  had  begun  to  trickle 
rather  pathetically  ;  but,  though  he  ranges  over  the 
records  of  sixty  years,  he  gives  the  names  of  only 
about  4000. 

But  it  will  prove  unnecessary  to  estimate  the  number 
of  converts  from  the  English  Church  if  we  turn  back 
and  consider  the  fortunes  of  Romanism  from  another 
point  of  view.  Prestige  the  Church  won,  and  wealth 
and  culture,  from  this  remarkable  accession  of  fine  and 


136     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

sensitive  men  and  women,  but  its  great  increase  in 
numbers  has  come  from  a  very  different  quarter,  and 
one  that  is  too  often  overlooked.  Up  to  this  point 
I  have  almost  entirely  followed  Catholic  writers  such 
as  Abbot  Gasquet  ("Short  History  of  the  Camolic 
Church  in  England  and  Wales  "),  Mr  Percy  Fitzgerald 
("  Fifty  Years  of  Catholic  Life  ")  and  W.  T.  Murphy 
("  The  Position  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  England  and 
Wales  ").  Now,  when  I  reach  the  real  turning-point  in 
their  Church's  fortunes — the  Irish  invasion — they 
wholly  fail  me,  or  say  next  to  nothing  about  it.  To 
mention  it  might  detract  from  the  legendary  air  of 
their  story,  I  suppose.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Irish  Cath- 
olics like  Mr  Davitt  {Freeman,  June  1902)  scornfully 
retort  that  of  the  1,750,000  (?)  Roman  Catholics  in 
Great  Britain  only  100,000  are  English.  Even  less 
partial  observers  like  Mr  H.  G.  Wells  seem  to  have 
missed  this  element  of  the  situation  when,  on  the 
ground  of  the  apparent  increase  of  Catholicism,  they 
predict  a  great  triumph  for  it  in  the  twentieth  century. 
The  moment  we  take  account  of  the  Irish  immigration 
the  situation  of  the  Roman  Church  in  England  entirely 
changes.  Until  1851  the  returns  of  emigration  were 
not  properly  analysed,  but  there  was  a  continual  exodus 
from  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  popula- 
tion of  England  nearly  doubled  between  1801  and 
1 84 1  :  the  population  of  Ireland  rose  only  by  50  per 
cent.  In  the  next  ten  years  it  fell  from  8,175,124 
to  6,552,385,  instead  of  rising  to  10,000,000.  The 
terrible  famine  of  1847  scattered  its  home-loving 
people  over  the  English-speaking  world.  More  than 
2,000,000  emigrated  in  three  years,  and  millions  have 
since  followed  in  the  familiar  paths.  In  those  days  of 
sluggish  sailing  ships  and  extreme  poverty  a  very 
large  proportion  of  the  emigrants  could  do  no  more 
than    reach    Liverpool    and    spread    slowly   over    the 


GREAT   BRITAIN  137 

north  of  England,  where  tens  of  thousands  of  their 
countrymen  already  lived.  It  appears  from  the  official 
figures  that  only  780,000  Irish  entered  the  United 
States  between  1840  and  1850,  so  that  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  emigrants  must  have  come  to 
Britain — many,  no  doubt,  to  leave  for  America  when 
they  had  earned  a  little  money.  At  once  Catholicism 
received  an  immense  accession  of  numbers  in  the 
north,  and  many  of  the  more  enterprising  and  less 
distressed  emigrants  pushed  on  to  London.  At  the 
census  of  1881  it  was  found  that  there  were  then 
living  in  England  781,119  persons  who  had  been  born 
in  Ireland  ;  and,  as  most  of  these  had  come  over  more 
than  thirty  years  before,  a  fresh  generation  of  Irish- 
born  Catholics,  very  frequently  the  outcome  of  mixed 
marriages,  had  appeared.  The  net  increase  must  be 
put  at  90  per  cent,  at  least ;  in  other  words,  there 
were  at  least  1,500,000  Irish  immigrants  and  their 
descendants  living  in  England.1 

Now  the  distress  had  fallen  more  severely  upon 
Catholic  Ireland  than  upon  the  north,  but  we  will 
allow  the  ordinary  proportion  at  that  time — about  one- 
fifth — for  Protestant  emigrants.  The  result  is  that, 
on  the  most  moderate  reading  of  the  official  statistics, 

1  It  may  be  useful  to  trace  the  growth  of  the  one  of  these  families 
which  is  best  known  to  me.  In  the  late  forties  my  paternal  grand- 
father settled  in  Macclesfield  with  his  wife  and  three  children.  Two 
of  the  children  married — both  married  Englishwomen — and  had 
fifteen  children.  In  1881  the  five  immigrants  of  the  forties  were 
represented  by  sixteen  living  individuals  ;  they  are  now  represented 
by  more  than  thirty  living  members — in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a 
third  of  the  children  in  the  first  and  second  generation  remained 
unmarried,  and  that  the  proportion  of  children  in  the  third 
generation  is  only  three  per  family.  I  know  scores  of  these 
immigrant  Irish  families  that  have  become  even  more  extensive. 
The  percentage  of  mixed  marriages  is  very  high,  and  at  each  such 
marriage  there  is  a  rigid  stipulation  that  all  the  children  shall  be 
Catholics. 


138     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

by  1 88 1  the  Catholic  Church  in  England  had  received 
the  addition  of  1,250,000  ardent  believers  from  the 
sister  isle  ;  and  this  point  the  Catholic  historian  usually 
overlooks ! 

Indeed,  Catholic  arithmetic  is  the  most  deadly  of 
boomerangs.  I  noticed  that  Abbot  Gasquet  assigns 
146,000  Catholics  to  London  in  1829.  As  the  popu- 
lation of  the  city  has  increased  fourfold  since  then, 
and  there  has  been  an  enormous  immigration  of  Irish, 
Italian,  French  and  German  Catholics,  and  a  most 
intense  proselytic  activity,  what  should  they  number 
to-day?  They  do  number  about  120,000.  Another 
Catholic  writer  (Month,  July  1885)  computes  that 
there  were  800,000  Catholics  in  England  in  184 1.  As 
the  population  of  England  has  more  than  doubled 
since  1841,  these  should  now  be  1,700,000  ;  and  to  them 
we  should  add  (to  date)  2,000,000  Catholics  of  Irish 
descent,  and  some  300,000  French,  Italian  and  German 
Catholics.  This  would  give  an  actual  Catholic  popu- 
lation of  4,000,000,  without  counting  the  "  10,000 
per  annum"  converts!  In  point  of  fact,  the  Catholic 
population  is  about  1,200,000.  Mr  Murphy  quotes 
with  apparent  approval  this  comment  of  the  Census 
Report  on  Education  on  the  religious  census  of  185 1 
(in  which  the  Catholic  authorities  supplied  the  number 
of  "worshippers  as  395,303):  "The  total  number  of 
persons  of  this  faith  cannot  be  less  than  one  million, 
and  probably  exceeds  that  number."  If  that  is  true 
— as  it  certainly  is — their  population  to-day  should 
exceed  3,000,000,  instead  of  falling  below  1,250,000. 
Finally,  Father  Werner  ("Orbis  TerrarumCatholicus") 
gave  the  Catholic  population  in  1888  as  1,359,831  ; 
which  is  much  more  than  it  numbers  to-day,  though 
far  less  than  it  ought  to  have  been  even  twenty  years 
ago. 

Let  us  do  their  arithmetic  more  soberly  for  them : 


GREAT   BRITAIN  139 

only  remembering,  that  the  Catholic  population  tends 
to  increase  more  rapidly  than  the  non-Catholic,  partly 
because  it  lies  mainly  among  the  improvident  poor, 
partly  because  the  Catholic  Church  forbids  under 
mortal  sin  any  deliberate  restriction  of  offspring, 
and  partly  because  it  claims  all  the  children  when  one 
parentis  a  Protestant.  In  1841  the  Catholic  popula- 
tion must  have  been,  by  normal  growth  and  immigra- 
tion, at  least  300,000 ;  to-day  it  should  be  at  least 
700,000.  To  these  must  be  added  a  half  century  of 
conversions,  or  a  fairly  full  stream  from  1841  to  1908. 
I  do  not  think  we  could  put  these  and  their  descend- 
ants at  less  than  200,000.  Catholics  further  claim — 
I  think  rightly — 300,000  French,  Italian,  Spanish, 
German  and  Polish  immigrants,  or  their  descendants. 
Thus  we  get  a  total  of  1,200,000.  Then  there  are 
the  Irish  Catholic  immigrants,  who  number  at  least 
1,000,000.  When  we  remember  that  most  of  them 
were  here  before  i860  (later  emigrants  going  mostly 
to  America  or  Australia),  and  bear  in  mind  their  rate 
and  manner  of  increase,  we  must  count  them  to-day 
as  numbering  about  2,000,000.  We  saw  that  they 
numbered  1,250,000  twenty-eight  years  ago.  This 
gives  a  total  of  3,200,000.  And  since  the  Catholics 
of  England  and  Wales  actually  number  not  more  than 
1,200,000  (as  we  shall  see),  we  find  a  loss  of  tivo  mil- 
lions, instead  of  the  remarkable  growth  that  some 
writers  affect  to  discover. 

In  this  conclusion  I  am  fortunate  to  have  the  sup- 
port of  more  than  one  Catholic  writer.  The  work  of 
Mr  Murphy  to  which  I  have  referred  was  a  prize 
essay  on  the  position  of  Catholicism,  issued  in  1892 
by  the  Catholic  "  Fifteen  Club."  The  preface,  by  Lord 
Braye,  is  painful  reading.  He  says :  "  We  preach 
the  truth  of  God,  undivided,  undefiled,  there  is  none  to 
listen  :  any  or  every  religion  constructed  by  man,  and 


140     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

avowing  itself  only  human,  boasting  of  fallibility — 
that  is  to  say,  untruth — any  and  every  such  is  accepted 
by  the  English  people.  Debt  has  fallen  like  a  blight 
on  our  impoverished  means  of  evangelising  this  land." 

The  whole  preface  is  a  lament  and  an  appeal  to 
Catholics  to  descend  from  foolish  dreams  to  hard 
realities.  Mr  Percy  Fitzgerald  seems  to  take  as  his 
estimate  of  the  actual  Catholic  population  the  figure 
given  by  Baumgarten — 1,381,000  for  England  and 
Wales.  A  pamphlet  published  at  Angers  (La  de- 
cadence Catholique,  by  "Patriote" — issued  in  English 
by  Mr  Kensit)  quotes  Father  Mitchell,  of  Westington, 
as  saying  from  the  pulpit  that  his  Church  has  lost 
1,000,000  souls  in  forty  years;  and  a  writer  in  the 
Month  as  saying :  "A  few  years  ago  we  reckoned  up 
1,362,000  Catholics:  that  was  about  1,000,000  less 
than  we  expected." 

It  is,  indeed,  easy  to  show  that  the  Catholic  popula- 
tion of  England  and  Wales  has  fallen  below  1,250,000. 
First  let  us  consider  the  Catholic  population  of  the 
Metropolis,  where  the  proselytising  agencies — the 
leisured  communities  of  Jesuits,  Oratorians,  etc.,  the 
finer  churches,  the  social  pressure,  the  employment  of 
the  press,  etc. — have  exerted  their  utmost  influence 
for  half-a-century.  Few  people  are  aware  how  subtle 
and  devoted  the  campaign  has  been  :  few  are  aware 
how  extraordinarily  slight  the  result  is,  and  how  small  a 
proportion  of  London's  population  is  Roman  Catholic. 
Probably  in  no  other  part  of  the  world  has  the  policy 
of  bluff  been  more  successful.  Yet  in  this  case  the 
most  positive  figures  are  available,  and  there  can  be 
no  question  about  the  conclusion.  Speaking,  some 
years  ago,  from  a  recollection  of  clerical  days,  I  said 
that1    when   Bishop  Vaughan  became  Archbishop  of 

1  See  my  "  Twelve   Years   in   a  Monastery,"  ch.    xiii.,  and   my 
article  in  The  National  Review  (August  1901). 


GREAT   BRITAIN  141 

Westminster,  he,  in  a  flush  of  confidence,  took  a  census 
of  his  diocese  (which  includes  the  greater  part  of 
London,  Essex,  Middlesex  and  Hertfordshire).  The 
result  was  not  made  public  :  it  showed  that  of  200,000 
nominal  Roman  Catholics  in  the  diocese,  at  least 
one-third  never  went  to  church.  My  recollection  of 
clerical  gossip  is  confirmed  in  Mr  Fitzgerald's  book 
(p-  336)'  He  says  that  on  some  of  the  census  returns 
the  total  was  200,000;  in  others  it  was  only  156,000. 
The  difference  is  the  difference  between  nominal  and 
real  Catholics,  faithful  and  obvious  seceders.  Mr 
Fitzgerald  is  ingenuous  enough  to  dwell  on  the  diffi- 
culties of  taking  the  census,  and  to  describe  the  clergy 
as  exploring  the  courts  and  alleys  to  ask  if  people  were 
Catholics.  The  kind  of  Catholic  who  has  to  be 
sought  in  his  home,  and  asked  if  he  is  willing  to  call 
himself  a  Catholic,  is  a  strange  adherent  of  a  Church 
that  binds  him  under  pain  of  eternal  damnation  to 
attend  mass  every  Sunday.  But  the  clergy  were  not 
so  foolish.  I  happened  to  be  giving  clerical  assistance 
to  a  priest  in  an  east-end  London  parish  on  the  Sun- 
day when  he  filled  up  his  census  paper.  "  How  many 
Catholics  have  you?"  was  the  first  question.  He 
replied  :  6000.  There  were  known  to  be  about  that 
number  of  Irish-Catholic  descendants  in  the  district. 
"  How  many  go  to  church  ? "  We  made  careful 
observation,  and  found  that  less  than  1000  (and  these 
were  mostly  children)  complied  with  that  characteristic 
test  of  Catholic  belief.  To  the  further  question,  how 
many  youths  attended  mass,  he  replied,  almost  cyni- 
cally, about  5  per  cent.  In  this  one  parish  alone 
more  than  4000  were  lost  to  the  Church.  And  this, 
broadly,  is  the  condition  of  East  London,  on  either 
bank  of  the  river,  from  the  Tower  to  Tilbury.  A 
zealous  priest  I  know  started  a  mission  at  Bow 
Common.     In  the  first  three  streets  he  explored  he 


142     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

secured  120  children  of  lapsed  parents.  He  dare  not 
search  farther.  At  Barking  there  were  200  children 
in  the  schools,  and  not  50  adults  (instead  of  800)  at 
mass. 

Mr  Charles  Booth  ("  Life  and  Labour  in  London," 
last  volume)  has  been  singularly  indulgent  in  this 
part  of  his  work.  He  finds  the  poor  Irish  "  with  few 
exceptions  Catholic,  and  generally  attached  to  their 
religion."  The  student  will  find  a  more  informed 
account  of  them  in  Father  Morris's  "  Catholic  England 
in  Modern  Times"  (p.  79).  The  descendants  of 
half-a-million  Irish  Catholics  are  rotting,  morally  and 
spiritually,  in  the  slums  of  our  cities.  While  those 
fine  churches  have  been  built  which  Lord  Braye 
regards  with  marked  aversion,  while  the  silken  nets 
have  been  plied  without  ceasing  among  the  more 
comfortable  classes,  they  have  been  neglected  to  an 
appalling  extent.  Mr  Booth,  of  course,  lacked  the 
technical  knowledge  to  deal  adequately  with  this  side 
of  London's  life.  He  observes,  of  a  large  section  of 
the  middle  class,  that  they  may  ''fairly  be  regarded 
as  good  Catholics,  though  they  habitually  neglect  the 
Sunday  mass  and  the  Easter  duty "  (both  binding 
under  a  strict  assurance  of  eternal  damnation) ;  and 
he  does  not  improve  his  statement  when  he  adds  that 
they  "  probably  fast  habitually."  Very  few  Catholics 
in  England  fast  at  all — it  is  not  urged  on  them  ;  and 
if  he  means  abstinence  from  meat,  which  is  urged,  the 
neglect  of  this  would  be  a  less  serious  matter  than  the 
neglect  of  mass. 

The  Sunday  mass  is  the  test  of  Catholic  belief  in 
Great  Britain,  and,  as  far  as  London  is  concerned,  we 
can  apply  it  with  rare  precision.  The  famous  census 
of  churchgoers  taken  by  The  Daily  News  in  1903 
gives  the  number  of  Catholics  who  attend  mass  in 
London   on   the  average  Sunday.     The  full  total  of 


GREAT    BRITAIN  143 

morning  attendances  was  96,281.  As  only  very  young 
children  (the  strict  obligation  begins  at  the  age  of 
seven,  but  children  of  four  or  five  commonly  attend) 
and  those  who  are  absolutely  prevented  by  employ- 
ment (domestic  servants  must  demand  permission)  or 
substantial  illness  are  excused,  we  must  take  this 
figure  to  represent  80  per  cent,  of  the  real  Catholic 
population  of  the  Metropolis.  If  it  be  claimed  that 
there  are  many  "bad  Catholics"  who  yet  cannot  be 
regarded  as  seceders,  we  may  point  out,  in  recompense, 
that  the  number  includes  many  "twicers"  (com- 
municants) and  very  many  non-Catholics  (at  the  more 
ornate  services).  There  are  certainly  not  more  than 
120,000  Catholics  among  London's  6,250,000/ 

In  the  Metropolis,  therefore,  where  the  proselytic 
activity  has  been  greatest,  the  Catholics  number  less 
than  one  in  fifty  of  the  population.  I  know  parts  of 
England  where  they  do  not  number  one  in  a  thousand 
(Buckingham,  for  instance) ;  but  in  Lancashire  and 
West  Yorkshire  the  proportion  is  far  higher,  and 
we  must  apply  different  tests  for  the  whole  country. 
The  first  of  these  standards  of  measurement — one 
that  is  pressed  on  us  by  the  Catholic — is  the  number 
and  increase  of  the  clergy.  There  are  3534  priests 
in  England   and    Wales   {Catholic   Directory,    1908). 

1  Mr  Mudie  Smith  gives  the  number  of  evening  attendances  as 
well  as  morning,  and  then  deducts  38  per  cent,  as  "twicers."  In 
a  Catholic  church  each  evening  attendant  is  a  "twicer"  (or  else  a 
Protestant) ;  and  a  certain  number  who  attend  the  high  (or  sung) 
mass  have  already  attended,  to  communicate,  at  an  earlier  mass. 
Also,  there  is  always  a  higher  proportion  of  strangers  at  Catholic 
ceremonies  than  at  non-Catholic.  I  may  add  that  of  the  96,000 
only  25,000  were  men.  The  women  numbered  42,000  and  the 
children  29,000.  In  the  evening  only  7000  men  attended  Catholic 
chapels,  and  a  large  proportion  of  these  would  be  non-Catholic  ! 
The  census  was  spread  over  many  months,  and  may  safely  be  taken 
to  represent  the  average  Sunday. 


144     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

As  there  were  only  493  in  1837  this  figure  is  regarded 
with  much  complacency.  When  we  recall  the  Irish 
invasion  the  increase  has  a  more  natural  aspect,  but 
there  is  a  great  deal  more  to  be  said.  Some  150  of 
these  clergy  are  invalided  or  "  retired  "  ;  I  know  of  one 
who  assists  Atheist  organisations  out  of  his  clerical 
pension.  More  than  1000  of  them  are  monks,  and 
the  bulk  of  these  do  little  or  no  parochial  work.  A 
glance  at  the  Catholic  Directory  is  instructive  in 
this  respect.  The  large  list  of  London  priests  in- 
cludes, one  finds,  20  priests  at  the  Cathedral,  20 
Jesuits  at  Farm  Street  and  28  at  Roehampton  and 
Wimbledon,  17  Salesians  at  Battersea,  14  Oblates  at 
Bayswater,  13  Oratorians  at  Bayswater,  13  Passionists 
at  Highgate,  11  Dominicans  at  Haverstock  Hill,  11 
Franciscans  at  Forest  Gate,  and  so  on.  The  great 
majority  of  these  do  no  parochial  work,  or  share  a 
small  amount  between  them.  In  the  country  the 
non-parochial  clergy  are  still  more  numerous.  The 
Jesuits  have  nearly  100  in  their  colleges,  the 
Benedictines  nearly  100  in  their  abbeys,  and  there 
are  the  "sleeping  communities  "  that  have  been  exiled 
from  France.  Possibly  2300  priests  are  fully  en- 
gaged in  parochial  work  in  England.  If  we  allow  the 
high  average  of  500  souls  to  each  priest,  this  will  give 
less  than  1,200,000. 

The  number  of  Catholic  chapels  (including  "stations" 
where  mass  is  not  always  said  on  Sundays)  in  England 
and  Wales  is  1736 — about  one-tenth  those  of  the 
Methodists.  On  the  face  of  the  matter,  this  helps  us 
little,  as  the  congregations  vary  from  a  score  to  several 
thousands.  I  have  often  said  the  Sunday  mass  to 
congregations  of  less  than  a  dozen.  At  Buckingham 
(population  3000)  the  only  outsider  who  attended  was 
my  gardener,  who  propitiated  my  rivals  by  stealthily 
attending  their  service  as  well.     But  the  figure  is  very 


GREAT   BRITAIN  145 

instructive  in  one  sense.  There  are  165  Catholic 
chapels  in  London,  and  the  number  of  Catholics  we 
have  found  to  be  rather  less  than  120,000.  That  is 
a  ratio  of  720  per  chapel  (including  infants,  etc.).  Now, 
it  seems  to  be  an  extremely  generous  proceeding  to 
apply  that  ratio  of  a  crowded  city  to  the  whole  of 
England  and  Wales,  since  the  busy  churches  of 
Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  are  balanced  by  the  tiny 
rural  missions.  But  let  us  do  it.  It  yields  a  Catholic 
population  of  1,215,200.  We  may  take  that  as  a 
maximum  for  England  and  Wales. 

We  get  precisely  the  same  result  from  the  marriage- 
rate.  In  the  years  1856- 1865  the  ratio  of  Catholic 
marriages  to  the  1000  was  46  (Mulhall's  Dictionary 
of  Statistics).  It  has  sunk  slowly  and  gradually  to 
41  per  1000,  the  figure  which  the  Registrar  General 
gives  for  the  last  five  years  (Annual  Return — the 
same  figure  is  given  in  The  Statemaris  Year  Book 
for  1897).  That  would  mean  that  the  Catholics  are 
a  fraction  over  a  twenty-fifth  of  the  population,  or 
1,300,000  in  number.  But  a  large  deduction  must  be 
made  for  mixed  marriages,  which  are  common.  No 
Catholic  ever  marries  except  in  a  Catholic  church — 
there  is  the  customary  threat  of  eternal  damnation  for 
doing  otherwise — and  so  the  Protestant  partner  must 
go  there.  This  slightly  reduces  the  percentage,  and 
again  gives  1,200,000  as  the  maximum  Catholic 
population.  Marriage  in  a  Catholic  church  is,  in 
practice,  the  safest  and  most  generous  test  of  all. 

Finally,  there  is  the  test  of  school  attendance.  It 
is  well  known  how  sternly  the  priests  denounce  parents 
who  send  their  children  to  non-Catholic  schools.  The 
practice  is  very  limited  indeed.  On  the  other  hand 
non-Catholic  children  are  eagerly  welcomed  at  Catholic 
schools,  and  in  many  places  attend  them  freely.  One 
must  take  also  into  account  the  fact  that  lapsed  parents 


146      DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

very  commonly  send  their  children  to  the  Catholic 
school ;  while  the  number  of  Catholic  children  in 
private  schools  is  relatively  small.  These  circum- 
stances make  the  problem  somewhat  complex,  but  a 
broad  inference  from  the  figures  is  possible.  In  the 
ideal  parish  the  priest  multiplies  his  school  children 
by  five  to  form  an  estimate  of  his  total  congregation. 
Now  the  number  of  children  attending  Catholic  ele- 
mentary schools  in  England  and  Wales  is  consider- 
ably less  than  300,000. l  This  would  give  less  than 
1,500,000  Catholics  on  the  ideal  ratio;  but  I  know 
many  Catholic  parishes  where  the  school  children 
even  outnumber  the  worshippers  over  the  age  of 
fourteen  instead  of  forming  only  one-fifth  of  the  whole 
congregation.  For  this  and  the  other  important 
reasons  I  have  given  we  must  make  very  large 
deductions.  If  we  grant  the  school  children  are  one- 
fourth  of  the  whole,  we  get  once  more  the  figure  of 
1,200,000. 

Here,  then,  we  have  five  completely  independent 
lines  of  research  that  bring  us  to  an  identical  conclu- 
sion. In  no  reasonable  sense  whatever  can  more  than 
1,200,000  of  the  people  of  England  and  Wales  be 
claimed  as  Roman  Catholics.  They  number  less 
than  a  twenty-fifth  of  the  population.  But  there  are 
3,200,000  baptised  Catholics,  or  children  of  such,  in 
the  country,  at  the  very  least,  and  we  have  thus  to 
credit  the  English  Roman  Church  with  a  loss  of 
2,000,000  followers.  It  has  gained  amongst  the 
wealthy,  the  titled,  and  those  who  needed  no  moral 

1 1  base  the  figure  on  the  official  statement  in  the  Accounts  and 
Papers  for  1904  that  in  that  year  grants  in  aid  were  given  to  931 
Catholic  schools,  at  which  the  average  attendance  was  238,287. 
The  remaining  131  Catholic  schools,  with  no  aid,  would  hardly 
carry  the  total  beyond  250,000,  or  not  much  beyond.  Multiplied 
simply  by  five,  this  would  mean  only  1,250,000  people,  without 
deductions. 


GREAT   BRITAIN  147 

regeneration,  to  a  considerable  extent.  It  has  lost 
the  very  poor,  who  are  absolutely  dependent  on  a 
priest,  to  an  appalling  extent.  And  to-day  the 
number  of  deliberate  seceders  amongst  the  Catholic 
middle-class  and  alert  workers  increases  enormously. 
They  are  found  in  thousands  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 
Even  the  clergy,  in  spite  of  the  great  struggle  that 
follows  secession,  and  the  almost  invariable  calumny 
and  bitterness  that  punish  it,  abandon  the  Church 
in  a  remarkable  proportion.  Of  the  priests  of  the 
Franciscan  order,  to  which  I  once  belonged,  about  12 
per  cent,  seceded  during  my  acquaintance  with  them. 
At  one  time  or  other  the  names  of  about  fifty  ex- 
priests  (in  England)  of  recent  years  have  come  under 
my  notice,1  but  the  ex-priest  is  quick  to  disappear  in 
the  crowd,  and  my  list  is  almost  a  chance  collection 
of  names. 

The  repression  of  the  modernist  movement  is  giving 
grave  anxiety  to  the  educated  Catholics  of  England, 
as  of  other  lands,  and  the  process  of  disintegration 
must  go  on  more  rapidly.  As  I  write,  an  able  young 
priest,  professor  of  philosophy  (Mr  Cecil  Burns), 
writes  me  that  he  has  seceded.  Catholic  scholars 
find  themselves  confronted  with  the  drastic  enforce- 
ment of  a  scheme  of  theology  that  cannot  count  one 
adherent  now  amongst  the  world's  leading  figures  in 
philosophy,  science,  history  or  letters.  No  one  takes 
the  place  of  the  dead  Mivarts  and  Actons  and 
Brunetieres,  liberal  as  they  were.  The  Catholic 
Encyclopedia  they  are  issuing  betrays,  in  its  inter- 
national list  of  contributors,  their  dire  poverty  in 
respect  of  culture.  Where,  in  the  Catholic  England 
of  to-day,  are  the  successors  of  Wiseman,  New- 
man,  Pugin,   Digby,  Ward,   Hope-Scott,  T.  Arnold, 

1  See  chapter  xi.  of  "Twelve  Years  in  a  Monastery"  (2nd  ed.) 
and  my  article  in  The  National  Review  (April  1902). 


148     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Coventry  Patmore,  Aubrey  de  Vere,  Mivart  and 
Lord  Acton  ?  Even  such  scholars  and  writers  as 
they  claim  seem  generally  to  reserve  the  explicit  pro- 
fession of  their  faith  till,  like  Mivart  and  Acton,  they 
are  beyond  the  reach  of  the  hierarchy,  and  of  Pius  X.'s 
modern  inquisition.  Divided  in  opinions,  oppressed 
by  a  papacy  they  cannot  respect,  yet  must  represent 
as  having  a  vaguely  supernatural  assistance,  cut  off 
from  the  higher  culture  of  the  world  by  a  mountain 
chain  of  obsolete  traditions,  their  position  cannot  be 
permanent.  And  behind  them  is  the  army  of  middle- 
class  men  and  women  who  are  guided  by  them  ;  while 
the  workers  are,  as  elsewhere,  being  swept  into  the 
rapids  of  political  democracy  and  social  movements. 

The  situation  in  Scotland  is  so  similar  to  that  in 
England,  and  the  total  number  of  Roman  Catholics 
is  so  small,  that  it  may  be  dismissed  in  a  few  pages. 
The  early  story  shows  the  same  quickening  into  fresh 
life  of  the  lingering  Catholic  elements  by  French  and 
Irish  refugees.  By  1837  there  were  seventy-four 
priests  and  seventy  chapels  in  Scotland,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  about  30,000.  After  1847,  Glasgow  became 
one  of  the  familiar  destinations  of  the  boats  full  of 
poor  emigrants  from  Belfast  and  Dublin,  and  they 
made  their  way,  south  and  north,  to  the  mining  or 
manufacturing  centres.  Conversions  have  been 
comparatively  few  from  the  Scottish  Churches.  This 
immigrant  Irish  body  constitutes  the  bulk  of  the  small 
Roman  Catholic  population  of  Scotland  to-day. 

It  is  usually  computed  at  400,000.  What  the  real 
number  of  Irish  immigrants  and  their  descendants  is 
I  cannot  discover,  but  the  similarity  of  the  conditions 
to  England,  and  the  greater  scarcity  of  priests,  incline 
one  to  believe  that  the  loss  is  at  least  proportionately 
as   great.      In   one    respect,    indeed,    the  situation  is 


GREAT   BRITAIN  149 

worse.  Painful  as  the  fact  is  to  one  who  sympathises 
with  that  afflicted  race,  it  is  undeniable  that  the  poor 
Irish  workers  abnormally  swell  the  criminal  statistics 
of  Scotland.1  This  points  undeniably  to  the  state  of 
things  amongst  them — great  drunkenness  and  in- 
difference to  all  religious  or  moral  culture — that  Father 
Morris  assigns  to  them  in  English  cities.  We  shall 
find  it  the  same  in  America.  Those  are  they  whom, 
above  all,  the  social  student  would  care  to  see  some 
Church  uplift.  It  is  those  above  all  who  have  been 
allowed  to  lapse  from  the  Catholic  Church,  while 
clerical  energies  were  spent  in  adding  a  few  additional 
dogmas  to  the  creeds  of  refined  Protestants. 

I  need  only  observe  that  the  claim  of  400,000  Roman 
Catholics  is  excessive.  There  are  550  priests  in  the 
land,  many  of  them  shut  up  in  monasteries  like  Fort 
Augustus.  If  we  allow  the  high  average  of  500  souls 
to  each  priest  who  is  fully  occupied  in  parochial  work, 
we  get  a  total  of  less  than  250,000.  The  number  of 
churches,  chapels  and  stations  is  385,  and  very  many 
of  these  are  tiny  structures  that  admit  only  a  handful 
of  worshippers.  If  we  were  to  assign  them  the  London 
average  of  700  souls  each — a  much  too  generous 
allowance  for  the  whole  of  Scotland — the  total  would 
still  be  less  than  270,000.  Finally,  there  are  68,993 
pupils  in  the  Catholic  elementary  schools  of  Scotland. 
If  we  simply  multiplied  these  by  five  we  should  get  a 
maximum  of  345,000.  I  have  already  explained  that 
we  must  by  no  means  multiply  them  by  five,  and  with 

1  Another  point  should  be  mentioned.  The  superiority  of  Ireland 
to  Scotland  in  respect  of  illegitimate  births  has  often  been  pointed 
out.  As  the  superiority  holds  of  no  other  Catholic  country,  it 
would  need  careful  study.  I  merely  wish  to  draw  attention  to  the 
fact,  discovered  and  notified  by  the  civic  authorities  ot  Glasgow, 
that  there  has  long  been  a  practice  of  sending  girls  from  Ireland  to 
Scotland  to  cover  the  expected  birth. 


150  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

the  deductions   I   indicated  the  number  fairly  agrees 
with  the  other  conclusions. 

There  are  about  250,000  Roman  Catholics  in 
Scotland.  That  is  150,000  less  than  the  authorities 
claim,  and,  on  the  basis  of  immigration,  it  betrays  a 
loss  of  at  least  250,000. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  ENGLISH  SPEAKING  WORLD— THE   BRITISH  COLONIES 

FIFTEEN  years  ago  the  English  Catholic 
Directory  claimed  that  the  Church  had 
10,500,000  adherents  within  the  frontiers  of 
the  British  Empire.  That  is  a  slender  enough  pro- 
portion of  the  whole  population  of  the  empire,  but 
it  frequently  impresses  the  unreflecting  as  a  startling 
indication  of  growth  in  the  course  of  a  single  century, 
and  gives  rise  to  fantastic  speculations  in  regard  to 
the  future.  Is  the  empire  being  Romanised?  Is  the 
power  of  the  papacy  destined  to  spread  yet  farther 
over  what  is  bound  to  be  an  outstanding  domain  in 
the  civilisation  of  the  future?  Is  the  loss  of  so  many 
millions  in  the  Latin  World,  under  the  spell  of  their 
first  admission  to  the  culture  of  the  age,  to  be  com- 
pensated by  the  return  of  older  nations,  with  a  longer 
and  deeper  literacy,  to  the  allegiance  of  the  Vatican  ? 
These  questions  are  being  asked  on  every  side, 
and  too  often  the  answer  has  its  sole  inspiration  in  the 
impressive  claim  of  10,500,000  adherents.  It  is  our 
task  in  this  chapter  to  see  if  the  Catholicism  of  the 
empire  at  large  be  more  solid  and  promising  than 
that  we  find  in  the  United  Kingdom.  The  10,500,000 
ought  to  be  12,000,000  to-day.  I  may  say  at  once 
that  we  shall  find  the  actual  Catholic  population  of  the 
empire  to  be  considerably  less  than  10,000,000,  and 
that  the  whole  apparent  growth  is  due  either  to 
movements  of  population  or  to  extension  of  the 
Imperial  frontier.  The  extension  of  British  rule  over 
existing  populations  (in  Canada,  Malta,  Mauritius, 
J51 


152     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Trinidad,  etc.)  accounts  for  2,500,000  out  of  the 
5,000,000  Catholics  of  the  empire  outside  the  United 
Kingdom.  Of  the  remainder  1,500,000  are  claimed 
as  converts  in  India  and  Ceylon — a  change  of  little 
cultural,  and  no  political,  importance — and  the 
fifth  million  is  mainly  accounted  for  by  the  Irish 
dispersal. 

It  is  thus  at  once  apparent  that  the  cry  of  a 
Romanising  of  the  empire  is  a  very  hollow  one  indeed. 
Proselytic  action  there  has  been  in  abundance,  but 
we  shall  find  that,  as  in  the  case  of  Great  Britain,  its 
slight  results  do  not  nearly  cover  the  immense  losses 
that  the  Church  of  Rome  has  suffered  amongst  all 
the  literate  populations  that  enter  into  the  British 
Empire.  Apart  from  the  converts  that  are  claimed 
in  illiterate  India — a  significant  exception — a  con- 
siderable net  loss  is  discovered  at  once.  We  may 
begin  with  Canada,  where  the  Catholics  are  most 
numerous,  and  proceed  to  verify  this  throughout  the 
empire. 

Canada 

When  the  British  flag  was  first  unfurled  on  the 
heights  of  Quebec,  almost  the  entire  population  of 
Canada  was  Roman  Catholic.  To  the  65,000  French 
Catholics  who  gazed  darkly  on  that  symbol  of  Protes- 
tantism one  has  to  add  only  a  few  thousand  migrants 
from  below  the  lakes,  scattered,  almost  churchless, 
amidst  the  ardent  supporters  of  Rome.  The  land 
was  overwhelmingly  and  fanatically  Catholic.  To- 
day it  is  Protestant  to  the  extent  of  54  per  cent, 
and  Catholic  to  the  extent  of  only  41  per  cent.  The 
circumstance  might  be  deemed  sufficient  to  warn 
the  Catholic  statistician  to  pay  more  heed  to  move- 
ments of  population,  but  even  in  the  case  of  Canada 


THE   BRITISH    COLONIES  153 

we  find  him  descanting  on  the  remarkable  growth, 
because  the  original  60,000  Catholics  have  now  become 
2,000,000.  Let  us  glance  briefly  at  the  making  of 
Canada.  There  were  two  distinct  Catholic  settle- 
ments in  Canada  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Lower  Canada  was  the  land  of  the  French 
colonists,  who  absorbed  most  of  the  invaders  from  the 
south.  But  in  1803  an  interesting  body  of  immigrants 
from  the  Old  World  planted  a  fresh  Catholic  com- 
munity in  Upper  Canada.  This  was  a  strong  con- 
tingent of  Catholic  Highlanders  from  Scotland,  who 
fled  from  the  persecution  and  poverty  of  their  native 
home,  and,  after  a  temporary  settlement  in  the  North 
American  Colony,  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  later 
Catholic  population  of  Ontario.  When  we  add  to 
these  two  elements  the  immigrant  Irish  Catholics, 
who  found  their  way  to  Canada  from  the  beginning 
of  the  century,  and  came  in  thousands  each  year  after 
the  famine  of  1847 — as  well  as  the  Irish  Catholics  who 
later  crossed  the  United  States  frontier  in  great 
numbers — we  have  all  the  constituents  of  the  Catholic 
population  of  Canada.  Its  growth,  and  the  increase 
of  its  clergy  and  missions,  present  some  striking 
figures,  when  these  are  torn  from  the  text  of  its 
history,  as  is  usually  done.  But  when  one  glances 
at  the  analysis  of  nationality,  and  the  records  of 
immigration,  the  miracle  loses  its  halo,  and  we  find 
the  customary  story  of  loss  and  failure. 

The  only  element  of  mystery  one  can  discover  in 
the  story  of  Canada  is  the  multiplication  of  the  original 
French  Catholic  inhabitants.  At  the  time  of  the 
conquest  by  General  Wolfe  (1760)  they  are  said  to 
have  numbered  65,000;  by  the  year  1871  they  had 
increased  to  1,082,940  ;  yet,  according  to  the  census 
report  (1901),  the  whole  immigration  from  France 
during    the    nineteenth    century    only    amounted    to 


154  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

7944  individuals.  Probably  the  figure  65,000  belongs 
to  an  earlier  census  (1703),  but  even  in  1791  the 
population  of  Lower  Canada  was  only  130,000,  after 
the  migrations  of  French  from  the  revolted  British 
colony.  However  that  may  be  accounted  for,  the 
figure  of  the  year  1871  is  correct,  and  we  may  make 
it  the  first  basis  of  our  study  of  Canada.  Persistently 
as  they  have  maintained  their  different  nationality, 
and  restless  as  they  have  been  under  the  more  or 
less  alien  rule  of  the  British,  the  French-Canadians 
have  the  respect  of  their  brothers  in  the  Dominion. 
But  their  admirers  will  hardly  claim  for  them  an 
advanced  culture,  or,  until  it  was  officially  enforced,  a 
high  degree  of  literacy.  As  in  the  case  of  Ireland, 
moreover,  they  have  had  the  political  sympathy  of 
their  clergy.  The  result  has  been  a  closer  aggrega- 
tion of  priests  and  people,  a  united  aversion  to  the 
literature  that  was  weakening  the  faith  in  other 
Catholic  lands,  and  a  warm  feeling  that  the  priests 
were  with  them  in  what  they  regarded  as  a  demo- 
cratic resistance  to  despotic  power.  These  different 
cultural  and  political  conditions  have  given  entirely 
different  characters  to  France  and  to  French  Canada, 
and  kept  the  latter  predominantly  faithful  to  the 
Vatican,  while  the  former  has  so  signally  abandoned 
it.  As,  therefore,  1,649,371  of  the  actual  inhabitants  of 
Canada  are  of  French  nationality  {Census,  p.  284),  its 
large  Catholic  population  is  not  difficult  to  understand. 
When  we  add  that,  according  to  the  same  official 
return,  988,721  of  the  inhabitants  of  Canada  are  of 
Irish  extraction,  we  not  only  account  at  once  for  the 
high  percentage  of  Romanists  in  the  Dominion,  but 
we  begin  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  leakage.  The  nominal 
Roman  Catholic  population  is  2,229,600.  This  falls 
short  by  400,000  of  the  combined  French  and  Irish 
inhabitants,  and  only  a  small  proportion  of  it  could  be 


THE   BRITISH   COLONIES  155 

accounted  for  by  admitting  a  one-fifth  percentage  of 
Irish  Protestants  amongst  the  immigrants.  But  we 
have  still  other  elements  of  the  population  to  take  into 
account  :  2,000,000  of  the  inhabitants  (1901)  are  of 
English  and  Scottish  extraction.  Here,  of  course,  we 
have  the  great  strength  of  the  Protestant  Churches, 
which  now  far  outnumber  the  Roman  Catholic  in  the 
Dominion,  but  a  fair  percentage — at  least  100,000 — 
(especially  of  those  from  the  United  States,  which  is 
not  accounted  a  separate  nationality)  must  be  assigned 
to  Rome.  Of  the  Germans,  310,501  in  number,  more 
than  a  third  must  be  assumed  to  be  Catholic  ;  and  of 
the  other  nationalities,  calculating  according  to  the 
actual  percentage  of  Catholics  in  each  country,  about 
50,000  must  be  Catholic.  The  total  number  of  in- 
habitants of  Catholic  extraction  is  thus  found,  on  a 
moderate  estimate,  to  be  2,700,000.  This  shows  at 
once  a  clear  and  unmistakable  loss  of  470,000.  No 
ingenuity  of  arithmetic  can  evade  this  conclusion. 
The  Canadian  Church  has  lost  at  least  470,000  in  the 
course  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  mostly  in  the 
second  half  of  the  century.  If  it  claims  to  have  made 
many  converts,  the  loss  figure  must  be  proportionately 
increased.  Without  counting  one  convert  its  due 
population  is  470,000  short. 

Further,  I  have  so  far  assumed  the  accuracy  of 
the  official  returns  of  religious  profession,  but  we  have 
learned  in  the  course  of  our  inquiry  to  distrust  these 
inflated  census  statistics.  We  saw  how  utterly  worth- 
less they  were  in  the  case  of  Spain  and  Italy.1      In  the 

1  A  further  illustration  may  be  useful,  as  I  am  now  dealing  with  a 
large  French  population.  As  I  write,  I  meet  an  educated  French- 
man who  was  baptised  in  his  infancy,  but  has  not  entered  a  church 
for  more  years  than  he  can  remember,  and  has  lost  all  religious 
belief.  He  insists,  however,  that  he  is  a  Catholic  (because  he  was 
baptised),  and  would  describe  himself  as  such  in  any  formulary. 


156     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

case  of  Canada  we  have  further  reason  for  distrusting 
them.  The  census  takers  there  are  directed,  not 
merely  to  ascertain  what  Church  a  man  or  woman 
"belongs  to,"  but  what  Church  "he  or  she  favours." 
No  doubt,  that  is  the  common  practice,  but  it  is  ex- 
plicitly enjoined  in  Canada.  Further,  the  Canadian 
Catholic  Directory  for  1903,  commenting  on  the 
census  returns  of  1901,  says  that  "the  official  diocesan 
statistics  make  a  somewhat  larger  total."  It  would 
be  strange  if  they  did  not.  Official  diocesan  statistics 
are  notoriously  optimistic.  They  are  not  based  on 
any  real  test  of  belief,  such  as  attendance  at  mass 
or  Easter  communion,  but  on  the  priest's  estimate 
of  the  number  of  Catholics  (faithful  or  unfaithful)  in 
his  parish.  Yet  these  diocesan  statistics  only  claim 
19,200  more  than  the  government  return!  In  other 
words,  the  highest  figure  that  the  clerical  authorities 
see  fit  to  offer  us  betrays  a  loss  of  nearly  500,000. 
However  the  Canadian  Catholic  Directory  goes 
on  to  make  an  observation  that  at  once  arouses 
distrust  of  its  statement  of  strength.  "  In  view  of 
these  statistics,"  it  says,  "the  percentage  of  Catholics 
in  the  legislative  bodies  of  the  Dominion  is  noticeably 
small."  In  point  of  fact,  of  the  eighty-one  members 
of  the  Senate  only  twenty-six  (or  32  per  cent.)  are 
Catholics:  of  the  213  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons  only  sixty  (or  28  per  cent.)  are  Catholics  : 
while  the  Church  claims  to  number  more  than  40 
per  cent,  of  the  population  amongst  its  followers,  and 
certainly  there  are  distinct  and  serious  Catholic  issues 
to  be  fought  for  in  Canada.  The  proportion  of 
Catholic  members  of  the  more  popular  body,  with 
its  wide  electoral  basis,  is  very  instructive. 

I  have  been  unable  to  discover  anything  like  a 
strict  inquiry  into  the  practical  tests  of  Catholic  belief 
(churchgoing,    etc.)    in    Canadian    literature,    but    a 


THE   BRITISH   COLONIES  157 

cursory  examination  of  the  statistics  given  at  various 
periods  fully  confirms  the  fact  of  a  very  considerable 
leakage.  The  French  district  had  from  the  start  of 
British  rule  a  large  and  organised  clergy,  which  has 
grown  with  the  population.  It  has,  further,  been 
less  disturbed  than  the  others  by  immigration,  and  the 
immigrants  have  (according  to  the  nationality  returns 
in  the  census  report)  been  more  Catholic  in  origin 
than  the  immigrants  to  any  other  province.  Of 
Quebec's  1,648,898  inhabitants  no  less  than  1,322,885 
are  of  French  extraction  and  114,842  Irish.  Yet 
even  here  the  nominal  Catholic  population  does  not 
reach  these  figures  ;  the  real  Catholic  population  is 
much  below  them.  And  there  are,  in  addition,  many 
thousand  German,  Italian  and  other  Catholics. 

Ontario  is  peculiarly  instructive  in  this  regard.  Mr 
T.  O'Hagan  ("  Canadian  Essays  ")  exults  in  the  pro- 
gress of  his  Church  in  Ontario,  with  the  usual  hint  at 
miracle.  He  tells  us  there  were  25,000  Catholics  in 
it  when  it  first  became  a  diocese  (1826),  though  they 
had  only  seven  priests  to  minister  to  them.  Obviously 
the  leakage  set  in  on  a  large  scale  in  those  distant 
days,  and  when  the  rush  of  Irish  immigrants  began 
in  1848  the  leakage  would  be  even  greater.  It  is 
enough  for  Mr  O'Hagan,  however,  to  consider  that 
those  25,000  have  now  increased  to  400,000.  His 
claim  is  modest  compared  with  that  of  the  Catholic 
Directory — 460,000 — but  even  the  census  returns 
only  yield  the  figure  of  390,000  who  "favour"  the 
Catholic  Church.  As  there  seem  to  be  little  more 
than  400  active  priests  (as  distinct  from  non-parochial 
monks)  in  the  province,  the  figure  390,000  is  difficult 
to  accept ;  it  would  mean  the  impossible  proportion 
of  nearly  1000  souls  per  priest.  But  the  most  extra- 
ordinary result  is  discovered  when  one  glances  at 
the  nationality  of  the  inhabitants  of  Ontario.     Of  its 


158     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

2,182,947  inhabitants  no  less  than  783,000  are  of 
French  and  Irish  extraction,  and  128,000  more  are  of 
other  Catholic  extraction !  Even  if  we  allow  its 
Catholic  population  to  be  390,000,  the  Church  is 
found  to  have  lost  nearly  400,000  in  Ontario  alone. 
It  is  significant  enough  that  this  enormous  loss  occurs 
in  the  most  forward  and  cultivated  part  of  the 
Dominion. 

New  Brunswick,  one  of  the  next  strongest  Catholic 
provinces,  has  a  total  population  of  331,120.  Of 
these  125,698  are  described  in  the  census  report  as 
Roman  Catholics.  On  turning  to  the  analysis  of 
nationalities  I  find  no  less  than  163,000  are  of  French 
or  Irish  extraction,  and  some  10,000  more  of  Catholic 
origin.     Here  again  is  a  very  serious  leakage. 

Manitoba  shows  a  lesser,  but  still  a  considerable, 
lapse.  Of  its  250,000  inhabitants  only  35,000  are 
returned  as  Roman  Catholic  to-day.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  census  returns  show  that  about  77,000  of 
them  must  be  of  Catholic  origin. 

No  doubt,  these  leakages  were  largely  occasioned 
by  the  dearth  of  priests  and  chapels  in  the  early 
days  of  immigration,  but  there  is  ample  evidence  that 
it  still  goes  on  to  a  very  great  extent,  and  is  now 
due  more  considerably  to  deliberate  secessions.  The 
clergy  have  not  only  not  recovered  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  who  fell  away  in  the  days  of  disorganisa- 
tion, but  they  have  to  record  heavy  losses  in  some 
of  their  modern  dioceses.  This  is  curiously  seen  in 
a  comparison  of  La  Canada  Eccldsiastique  for  1890 
and  the  Canadian  Catholic  Directory  for  1903.  The 
Montreal  diocese  reports  450,000  faithful  in  1890 
and  only  415,000  in  1903.  The  figures  for  St 
Hyacinth  sink  from  118,000  to  115,000:  London 
(Ontario)  from  60,000  to  58,000 :  St  Albert  from 
20,000   to    18,000:     Charlottetown    from    55,000   to 


THE   BRITISH   COLONIES  159 

53,000.  According  to  the  Catholic  directories  there 
were  about  164  churches  and  chapels  in  Canada  in 
1890,  and  about  174  in  1900.  This  is  about  the 
same  number  that  we  find  in  England  and  Wales  for 
a  Catholic  population  of  1,200,000.  We  found  that 
the  proportion  of  Catholics  per  church  in  London 
(England)  is  about  700 ;  in  the  best  colonies  of 
Australia  it  is  less  than  300 ;  in  the  United  States  it 
is  less  than  900.  The  Canadian  claim  of  2,229,600 
Catholics  would  mean  a  proportion  of  1280  per  church, 
which,  I  think,  few  non-Catholics  will  care  to  allow. 
The  same  point  becomes  apparent  when  we  regard 
the  number  of  priests.  The  Statesman  s  Year  Book 
gives  the  number  as  1500,  but  I  calculate  from 
the  Directory  that  it  is  rather  2500,  besides  580 
"regulars,"  a  third  of  whom  may  be  classed  with  the 
11  seculars "  for  our  purpose.  When  we  add  these 
to  the  total,  and  deduct  "invalids"  and  "retired," 
we  have  about  2500  active  priests.  The  claim  of 
2,250,000  Catholics  would  assign  an  average  of  nearly 
900  to  each  priest.  As  the  average  is  only  about  500 
souls  per  active  priest  in  Great  Britain,  and  much  less 
than  that  in  Ireland  (a  closer  parallel  to  Canada),  the 
reader  may  judge  whether  it  is  possible  to  allow  900 
per  priest  in  Canada.  The  average  for  the  Protestant 
minister  in  Canada  is  about  600. 

But  I  have  already  observed  that  the  census  returns 
do  not  pretend  to  give  2,250,000  as  "  belonging "  to 
the  Roman  Church.  The  enumerators  are  expressly 
told  that  the  qualification  covers  all  who  "  belong  or 
adhere  to,  or  favour"  that  denomination.  The  re- 
turns are,  therefore,  no  more  trustworthy  than  else- 
where. In  view  of  the  proportion  of  priests  and 
chapels  the  Catholics  must  number  less  than  2,000,000, 
and  that  means  a  loss  (on  the  emigration  and  other 
figures  I  have  given)  of  at  least  700,000  souls. 


160     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Newfoundland  is  not  included  in  the  preceding 
estimates.  It  has  a  total  population  of  217,000,  of 
whom  75,989  are  described  as  Roman  Catholic.  The 
figure  is  too  small  to  merit  special  study,  and  we  may 
let  it  stand.  Mr  Bodley  remarks,  however,  in  his 
"Catholic  Democracy  of  America,"  p.  4,  that  "the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  claims  half  of  the  population 
of  Newfoundland,  and  they  are  to  a  man  of  Irish 
extraction."  The  body  is,  therefore,  entirely  the 
outcome  of  movements  of  population.  It  is  worth 
noting,  too,  that  while  the  Church  claimed  "half 
the  population "  twenty  years  ago,  it  is  content  to 
claim  one-third  to-day. 


Australia 

When  we  follow  the  stream  of  emigration  across 
the  Pacific  to  the  new  continent  of  the  far  south-west 
we  discover  an  even  greater  loss,  and  more  precise 
means  of  determining  it.  That  the  Australian  Church 
is  only  a  fragment  of  the  broken  population  of  Ireland 
is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge.  Its  story  is  the 
story  of  waves  of  emigrants  washing  over  the  vast 
territory  and  quickening  it  with  civilised  life :  of  a 
band  of  devoted  priests  working  for  the  reincorporation 
of  the  scattered  workers  in  the  fabric  of  the  Roman 
Church  :  of  a  success  that  meets  the  eye  in  every  large 
Australian  town  to-day  :  but  also  of  a  failure  that  is 
suspected  by  many,  and  fully  appreciated  by  very  few. 

The  making  of  Australia  is  one  of  the  romances  of 
the  nineteenth  century  that  have  changed,  and  will 
further  change,  the  face  of  the  earth.  When  the 
century  opened  it  was  known  in  England  as  a  vast 
wilderness  at  the  antipodes  to  which  it  was  convenient 
to  despatch  the  less  desirable  elements  of  the  popula- 


THE   BRITISH   COLONIES  161 

tion.  From  1 788  to  1 839  it  was  the  great  natural  jail  to 
whichour  worst  convicts  were  transported.  "Criminal" 
is  a  relative  term,  and  it  must  not  be  imagined  that 
those  early  elements  of  the  Australian  people  were 
wholly  disreputable.  They  included  a  large  number 
of  rebels  from  Ireland,  and  amongst  these  were  two 
Catholic  priests  who  were  implicated  in  the  rebellion 
of  '98.  English  rule  refused  Catholic  chaplains  to  the 
convicts,  but  these  two  priests  defiantly  ministered  to 
their  co-religionists,  and  were  in  time  joined  by  other 
furtive  ministers  of  the  faith.  They  were  officially 
recognised  in  18 19,  and  the  formation  of  the  new 
Church  began. 

At  that  time  the  white  population  numbered  about 
30,000,  three-fourths  of  whom  were  convicts.  By 
1830  there  were  6000  Catholics  at  Sydney,  and  12,000 
in  the  whole  of  New  South  Wales  ;  but  as  there  was 
only  one  priest  at  Sydney  the  leakage  must  have 
already  begun  on  a  very  large  scale.1  Four  years 
later  it  was  officially  reported  that  there  were  20,000 
Catholics  in  the  country  (or  a  third  of  the  entire  white 
population),  who  were  mainly  emancipated  Irish 
prisoners.  Convicts  were  still  arriving  at  the  rate  of 
5000  or  6000  a  year,  and  Bishop  Ullathorne  declared 
that  at  least  1000  of  these  were  Catholics.  But  there 
were  still  only  four  priests  in  the  continent,  and  the 
losses  were  very  heavy.  In  Van  Diemen's  Land  there 
was  one  priest  to  4000  Catholics.  An  official  census 
of  1836  returns  the  Catholics  as  21,898,  with  six 
priests  and  chapels,  and  a  weekly  attendance  at  these 
chapels  of  only  2850 — a  loss  of  17,000  already.  From 
1836  to  1 84 1  a  further  7000  Catholic  convicts  were 
landed,  and  at  the  latter  date  about  9000  were  attend- 
ing mass — one-third   of  them  doing  so  under  prison 

1  These  and  most  of  my  historical  details  are  taken  from  Cardinal 
Moran's  "  History  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Australia." 


162     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

discipline.  Melbourne  had  then  a  population  of 
10,000.  A  report  sent  to  Rome  claimed  that  4000  of 
these  were  Catholics ;  but  the  resident  priest  only- 
claimed  1000,  and  said  that  about  700  attended  church. 
It  was  the  typical  situation.  Sydney  had  a  population 
of  40,000.  The  report  to  the  Vatican  says  that 
14,000  of  these  "  profess  the  Catholic  faith  "  ;  the  local 
clergy  report  that  2550  attend  the  Sunday  mass. 
These  tens  of  thousands  of  seceders,  it  must  be  re- 
membered, have  multiplied  fourfold  since  those  days. 

In  1 85 1  the  discovery  of  gold  was  announced,  and 
the  fresh  rushes  of  population  completely  disorganised 
the  overworked  Church.  One  cannot  help  reflecting, 
as  one  reads  of  this  recurring  disorder  and  leakage 
throughout  the  history  of  the  nineteenth  century,  how 
the  famous  polity  of  the  Roman  Church  utterly  failed 
to  meet  the  emergencies,  and  lost  millions  of  followers 
from  pure  lack  of  organisation.  There  were  tens  of 
thousands  of  superfluous  clergy  in  Catholic  countries, 
and  thousands  were  being  sent  on  "missions";  yet 
we  shall  see  at  the  end  of  this  section  that  the  Vatican 
has  lost  about  17,000,000  civilised  followers  from  its 
failure  in  international  control.  By  i860  Tasmania  had 
30,000  convicts  and  30,000  free  inhabitants,  and  only 
three  priests  ;  and  this  was  a  fairly  general  condition. 
In  1870  Bishop  Spalding  reports  the  return  to  the 
fold  of  250  seceders ;  but  he  also  reports  that  there 
are  only  4000  Easter  communions  at  Sydney,  where 
the  Catholic  population  is  10,000.  New  South  Wales 
had  then  a  nominal  Catholic  population  of  100,000 ; 
South  Australia  about  30,000  (to  thirty  priests) ; 
Queensland  about  30,000.  Of  these  known  Catholics 
(or  people  of  Catholic  origin)  the  vast  majority  never 
went  to  church,  even  where  they  could. 

The  organisation  of  the  Church  proceeded  with  the 
organisation  of  civil  and  national  life.     At  the  time  of 


THE   BRITISH    COLONIES  163 

the  centenary  of  1888  the  Australasian  Catholic 
Directory  reported  that  they  had  544  priests,  862 
chapels  (including  temporary  stations)  and  594,460 
followers.  In  the  meantime,  of  course  (since  1848), 
the  Irish  had  been  pouring  into  the  colony  far  more 
abundantly  than  ever.  The  population  had  risen 
to  close  on  3,000,000.  Cardinal  Moran  puts  the 
number  of  Catholics  at  700,000 :  the  Directory  at 
600,000.  Either  figure  would  be  moderate  in  view  of 
the  enormous  Irish  percentage  in  the  population  ;  but 
both  figures  claim  an  exorbitant  proportion  of  faithful 
to  priests.  We  may,  however,  pass  at  once  to  the 
census  results  of  1891  and  1901,  which  throw  con- 
siderable light  on  the  situation. 

At  the  census  of  1891  some  712,415  of  the  popu- 
lation (then  3,013,790)  were  described  as  Roman 
Catholics.  Quoting  from  the  Australasian  Hand- 
book for  1893,  from  which  I  take  the  figures,  I  find 
that  286,917  of  these  belonged  to  New  South  Wales. 
Of  these,  it  goes  on  to  say,  109,374  attended  church. 
I  believe  this  figure  does  not  include  children  under 
fourteen,  who  form  about  a  third  of  a  population,  and 
we  must  allow  for  illness  and  enforced  absence.  But 
with  the  most  liberal  allowance  the  real  Catholic  popu- 
lation of  New  South  Wales  is  about  100,000  short  of 
the  number  given  in  the  census  returns.  Victoria  has 
a  census  return  of  248,590  Catholics,  and  its  551 
churches  have  an  average  attendance  of  124,699. 
With  less  than  half  the  number  of  churches  it  has  a 
larger  accommodation.  Adding  the  children  and  en- 
forced absentees  we  get  a  Catholic  population  40,000 
short  of  the  census  return.  West  Australia  reports 
11,159  Catholics,  but  only  3025  attend  mass  in  its 
twenty-five  chapels  (with  sixteen  priests).  Tasmania 
has  25,805  Catholics,  but  only  15,000  attend  mass. 
The  figures  are  not  available  for  the  other  provinces. 


164     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

We  turn  to  the  census  of  1901,  and  find  that  the 
Catholics  have  nominally  increased  to  856,052.  But 
a  closer  analysis  shows  that  the  leakage  is  on  the 
increase.  New  South  Wales  has  now  347,286  nominal 
Catholics,  but  only  100,000  are  said  {Australasian 
Handbook,  1908)  to  attend  mass  on  Sundays.  Add 
the  children  under  fourteen  (50,000)  and  the  enforced 
absentees  (about  15,000),  and  we  get  a  real  Catholic 
population  of  165,000 — or  180,000  less  than  the  census 
return.  As  the  Catholics  of  New  South  Wales  form 
two-fifths  of  the  whole  Australian  Catholic  body  this 
result  is  not  flattering.  But  Victoria  redeems  it,  to 
a  great  extent,  with  a  church  attendance  of  141,000 
to  a  Catholic  population  of  263,71c.1 

The  other  figures  are  not  available.  If  we  assume 
for  them  a  position  midway  between  Victoria  (which 
has  exceptional  church  accommodation)  and  New 
South  Wales,  we  find  that  250,000  of  the  nominal 
Catholics  of  Australia,  who  could  do  so,  do  not  comply 
with  the  Church's  drastic  obligation  to  attend  mass  on 
Sundays.  One  may  allow  that  a  certain  number  of 
these  are  what  is  called  "bad  Catholics" — steadfast  in 
belief,  but  of  the  peculiar  complexion  that  can  incur 
(and  believe  it  incurs)  eternal  damnation  once  a  week 
rather  than  spend  a  half  hour  in  church.  The  reader 
will  probably  put  the  mass  down  as  seceders.  And 
these  are  seceders  of  the  present  generation  only. 

On  these  official  statistics  we  may  form  some  esti- 
mate of  the  losses  that  the  Church  has  suffered  in 
Australia.  By  1841  there  were  about  40,000  Catholics 
in  the  country,  of  whom  about  28,000  had  drifted.  The 
discovery  of  gold  and  the  inrush  of  Irish  emigrants 
overtaxed  the  resources  of  the  clergy  before  they 
could  recover  any  of  the  lost  ground,  and  the  situation 

1  The  Handbook  only  says  in  the  case  of  New  South  Wales  that 
the  church  attendance  does  not  include  children  under  fourteen. 


THE   BRITISH   COLONIES  1G5 

in  1870  was  as  bad  as  ever.  There  were  then  more 
than  200,000  Catholics  in  the  country,  and  more  than 
half  of  these  were  beyond  control.  Few  of  these  can 
have  been  recovered,  as,  in  spite  of  the  enormous 
immigration,  the  nominal  Catholic  population  was 
only  712,000  in  1891.  The  real  Catholic  population 
was,  we  saw,  about  200,000  short  of  this.  A  heavy 
Irish  immigration  continued,  since  we  find  that  at  the 
census  of  1901  there  were  181,000  in  the  Common- 
wealth who  had  been  born  in  Ireland.  Yet  the 
nominal  Catholic  population  only  increased  to  856,000, 
and  the  practising  Catholics  again  fell  short  of  this 
by  between  250,000  and  300,000.  Between  this 
enormous  number  of  recent  seceders  and  the  descend- 
ants of  the  earlier  drift  the  loss  must  amount  to  not 
less  than  500,000 ;  and  the  real  Catholic  population  is 
not  more  than  600,000. 

A  word  may  be  added  in  confirmation  of  the  latter 
figure.  Victoria,  the  most  faithful  colony,  claims  a 
Catholic  population  of  263,710.  As  its  total  number 
of  priests,  active  and  inactive,  is  only  242,  this  would 
demand  an  average  of  more  than  1000  per  priest. 
The  school  test  is,  however,  the  best  in  the  case  of 
Victoria.  As  the  church  accommodation  is  particularly 
ample  I  infer  that  schools  have,  as  is  usual,  been  built 
in  proportion.  In  Victoria,  moreover,  the  system  of 
purely  secular  education  is  adopted  in  the  official 
elementary  schools,  and  Catholics  are  bitterly  opposed 
to  it.  Yet  I  find,  from  The  Statesman  s  Year  Book 
that  there  are  only  about  24,000  pupils  in  the  Catholic 
elementary  schools  of  Victoria.  Even  if  we  multiply 
this  by  the  full  number  of  five,  it  only  yields  a  real 
Catholic  population  of  120,000,  instead  of  263,000. 
New  South  Wales  has  41,286  pupils  in  its  elementary 
schools,  which  would  yield,  at  the  most,  a  population 
of  206,000  instead  of  the  official  340,000.     It  is  clear 


166     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

that   we   must   take   off  250,000   from   the   nominal 
Catholic  strength  in  Australia  ;  and  these,  with  earlier 
seceders  and  their  descendants,  make  up  my  figure  of 
500,000  lapsed. 
•  <•••••• 

New  Zealand  reported  at  the  census  of  1901  some 
109,822  Roman  Catholics  in  a  total  population  of 
888,000.  The  colony  has  been  built  up  more  rapidly 
than  Australia,  but  the  Church  has  grown  more  slowly, 
and  the  leakage  throughout  has  been  considerable. 
There  were  no  Catholics  in  New  Zealand  until  1828, 
when  an  Irish  trader  settled  there.  Eight  years  later 
the  Australian  clergy  were  induced  to  work  amongst 
the  Maoris  (there  was  already  Protestant  missionaries 
amongst  them),  and  they  claimed  a  harvest  of  4000 
native  conversions  in  five  years.  By  the  middle  of 
the  fifties  they  had  the  allegiance  of  about  25,000 
Maoris,  but  the  troubles  of  the  sixties  utterly  ruined 
their  work,  and  the  natives  fell  away.  Cardinal 
Moran  says  that  in  1871  a  priest  found  one  Catholic 
Maori  where  there  had  been  5000  in  1846. 

In  the  meantime  the  European  population  was 
slowly  increasing.  By  1851  it  reached  26,707,  of 
whom  3472  were  Roman  Catholics.  In  1883  the  total 
population  was  515,000.  What  proportion  of  these 
ought  to  have  been  Roman  Catholic  may  be  gathered 
from  the  fact  that,  in  that  year,  10  per  cent,  of  the 
population  were  returned  as  "born  in  Ireland."  Yet 
by  1 89 1  the  nominal  Catholic  population  was  only 
85,856,  and  the  real  number  much  smaller.  The 
Australasian  Handbook  tells  that  only  30,500  at- 
tended the  Catholic  churches  at  that  time.  Since 
then  there  has  been  a  continued  immigration  from 
Ireland,  and  the  Catholic  body  does  not  seem  to  have 
proportionately  increased.  At  the  census  of  1901  it 
was  found  that  43,524    New    Zealanders    had    been 


THE   BRITISH   COLONIES  167 

born  in  Ireland.  I  have  not,  however,  the  figures  of 
church  attendance  for  1901,  or  the  exact  proportion 
of  Irish  in  the  islands.  On  the  basis  of  the  figures 
of  1 89 1,  we  may  say  that  30,000  or  40,000  must  be 
struck  off  the  official  total,  and  the  destruction  of  the 
Maori  missions  will  at  least  double  the  loss. 


INDIA,   SOUTH   AFRICA,    ETC. 

The  remaining  Catholic  population  of  the  British 
Empire  consists  to  an  overwhelming  extent  of  illiter- 
ates. India  and  Ceylon  have  the  greater  part  of 
them,  and  the  cultural  value  of  these  compensatory 
gains  to  the  skrinking  Church  need  not  be  enlarged 
upon.  When  the  large  number  of  converts  that  are 
claimed  in  India  and  Ceylon  is  examined,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  Catholic  missionaries  have  been 
at  work  there  since  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  The  labours  of  St  Francis  Xavier 
and  the  early  Jesuits  greatly  extended  the  work  of  the 
earlier  Portuguese  missionaries,  and  the  eighteenth- 
century  Jesuits  promoted  it  in  their  peculiar  way.  It 
may  be  remembered  that  their  policy  of  decking 
Christianity  with  a  liberal  ornamentation  of  native 
ideas  and  customs  brought  a  strong  condemnation 
upon  them  from  the  Vatican,  but  they  paid  little  heed 
to  it.  Under  French  influence  the  work  was  further 
advanced,  and  a  very  large  body  of  Catholic  mission- 
aries have  been  active  in  India  throughout  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

Large  as  the  number  of  converts  is,  we  have  the 
usual  inflated  statements  to  reject.  An  article  over 
the  signature  of  Cardinal  Vaughan  in  the  last  edition 
of  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica  gives  the  number  of 
Roman  Catholics   in  India  and  Ceylon  as  2,005,925. 


168     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

The  generosity  of  works  of  reference  in  allowing 
Catholics  to  write  on  their  own  affairs  has  its  dis- 
advantages. According  to  the  census  report  for 
1 90 1  the  religious  census  for  India  showed  that  there 
were  1,202,169  Roman  Catholics  in  the  country,  and 
287,419  in  Ceylon. 

In    her    "Things    as    they    are"     (1903),     Miss 
Carmichael,    a    Protestant    missionary,    makes   some 
very  serious  statements  about  the  larger  communities 
of  converts  that   are    claimed    in    India.     "  Spiritual 
things  are  not  considered  anything  by  most  of  them," 
she  says  ;  and  on  the  claim  that  the  doors  are  wide 
open  for  conversions  in  certain  districts  she  observes 
that  "we  never  find  that  they  are  so  very  wide  open 
when  it  is  known  we  bring  nothing  tangible  with  us  " 
(p.  286).      Her  statement  reminded  me  of  an  English 
Jesuit  missionary  whom   I   heard  deliver  an  eloquent 
appeal    for   funds   from    a    London   pulpit.       In    the 
clerical  smoke-room  afterwards  he  enforced  his  point 
by  observing  frankly  that  conversions   were    largely 
a  matter  of   material  aid.     In   view  of  the    conflict- 
ing statements  on  these  matters  I  turn  to  our  most 
recent  and  authoritative  work  on  India — The  Imperial 
Gazetteer    (1907).       It   says  of  the    105,000    native 
Catholics  of  Bombay  that  they  are  mostly  "descend- 
ants of  converts    made   by   the    Portuguese    several 
centuries  ago,  who  at  the   present  day  are  ignorant 
and  unprogressive."     Of  the  large  advances  made  in 
recent  decades  it  says  :   "The  secret  of  many  of  the 
conversions    is  to    be   sought  more  in   the   relations 
which    the    missionary    bodies    have    been    able     to 
establish  with  the   famine  waifs  in  their  orphanages 
than  in  any  general  movement  in  the  adult  members 
of  non-Christian  communities  towards  accepting  the 
revelation  of  the  Gospel."     Finally,  in  regard  to  adult 
conversions,    it    quotes   the    words   of    Mr    Francis : 


THE    BRITISH   COLONIES  169 

"The  remarkable  growth  in  the  number  of  native 
Christians  largely  proceeds  from  the  natural  and 
laudable  discontent  with  their  lot  which  possesses  the 
lower  classes  of  the  Hindus."1  If  we  assign  1,500,000 
converts  to  the  Church  in  India  and  Ceylon,  they  will 
weigh  rather  heavily  in  the  illiterate  side  of  its  scale. 

Mauritius  adds  a  further  117,102  to  the  adherents 
of  the  Vatican.  These  are  mainly  French  descendants 
of  a  very  low  degree  of  culture.  At  the  government 
examinations  of  190 1  only  3650  children  were  presented 
from  the  sixty-five  Catholic  schools.  There  are 
something  less  than  double  that  number  on  the  rolls, 
and  they  attend  very  badly.  Malta  furnishes  183,115 
Italian  Catholics  of  the  illiterate  character  that  we 
have  seen  in  the  south  of  Italy.  There  are  18,000 
children  on  the  rolls.  Gibraltar  contains  nearly 
20,000,  generally  of  Italian  descent.  Grenada,  Santa 
Lucia,  Trinidad  and  Tobago  contain  166,642  Roman 
Catholics.  Cyprus,  the  Falkland  Islands  and  the 
Bermudas  add  about  2000  more.  It  would  be  use- 
less to  enter  into  a  close  analysis  of  these  423,000 
descendants  of  French,  Italian  and  Spanish  settlers, 
half-breeds,  etc.  They  may  be  added  en  bloc  to  the 
Catholic  total,  and  put  in  the  same  cultural  category 
with  the  South  Americans. 

South  Africa  brings  us  back  to  a  more  advanced 
section  of  the  empire,  but  its  Catholic  population  is 
so  small  that  we  need  not  stay  to  examine  it  closely. 
Cape  Colony  has  37,069  Catholics  ;  Natal  10,419  ; 
the  Orange  River  Colony  3286  (a  decrease  since  the 
last  census);  the  Transvaal  16,491;  Basutoland 
5701  ;  the  Gold  Coast  4850 ;  and  Sierra  Leone 
794 — a  total  of  about  78,000.  We  may  take  this 
slight  census  result  without  further  inquiry.  The 
article  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica    by  Cardinal 

1  The  Imperial  Gazetteer  of  India,  vol.  i.  pp.  444  and  445. 


170  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Vaughan,  claims  that  there  are  463,824  Catholics  in 
Africa.  The  figure  seems  to  be  as  trustworthy  as 
the  figure  he  gives  for  India  and  Ceylon,  but  we  will 
consider  the  rest  of  Africa  under  the  head  of  foreign 
missions. 
. 

It  will  be  convenient  for  the  reader,  no  doubt,  if 
I  tabulate  the  results  for  the  British  Empire.  For 
the  United  Kingdom,  Canada  and  Australia  I  give 
the  reduced  figures  I  have  already  vindicated.  For  the 
other  places  I  give  the  unaltered  census  results.  The 
total  loss  for  the  former  countries  I  have  shown  to  be 
about  3,500,000  without  claiming  any  diminution  in 
Ireland. 

Roman  Catholics  in  the  British  Empire 


Part  of  Empire 


England  and  Wales     . 
Scotland      .... 
Ireland        .... 
Canada  and  Newfoundland  . 
Australia  and  New  Zealand . 
India  and  Ceylon 
Mauritius  and  the  Seychelles 
Malta  and  Gibraltar     . 
West  Indies 
South  and  West  Africa 


Number   of 
Catholics 


1,200,000 
250,000 

3,308,663 

2,075,000 
670,000 

1,489,588 

133,000 

200,000 

166,642 

78,000 


9,570,000 


The    total    population    of    the    British    Empire    is 
392,846,835- 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  ENGLISH-SPEAKING  WORLD— THE  UNITED  STATES 

SOME  years  ago  Mr  Bodley  wrote  a  charming 
essay  on  "  The  Catholic  Democracy  of 
America "  that  may  have  given  a  chill  of 
apprehension  to  the  minds  of  his  Protestant  readers. 
Impressed  at  once  with  the  rise  of  the  great  republic, 
and  the  wonderful  growth  of  Catholicism  within  its 
frontiers,  he  passed,  naturally  enough,  into  a  prophetic 
mood.  From  1 800  to  1 890  the  population  of  the  United 
States  had  increased  from  4,500,000  to  62,000,000. 
Mr  Gladstone  had  surmised  that  by  the  end  of  the 
twentieth  century  it  would  reach  the  imposing  figure 
of  600,000,000.  Mr  Bodley  was  content  to  predict  a 
population  of  400,000,000.  From  1800  to  1890  the 
Roman  Catholics  in  the  States  had  grown  from  a 
struggling  and  scattered  flock  of  about  100,000  to  an 
organised  nation  of  (Mr  Bodley  said)  10,000,000,  with 
a  vast  army  of  clergy  and  the  richest  ecclesiastical 
structures  in  the  country.  It  seemed  that  by  the  end 
of  the  twentieth  century  they  would  number  70,000,000, 
and,  with  a  corresponding  progress  in  England, 
Canada  and  Australia,  English-speaking  Catholics 
would  predominate  over  the  Latin  world,  capture  the 
papacy,  Anglicise  or  Americanise  the  Church.  .  .  . 

We  need  not  pursue  the  fascinating  prophecy.  I 
do  not  think  Mr  Bodley  would  repeat  it  to-day.  But 
it  was  typical  enough  of  the  dreams  of  twenty  years 
ago,  and  amongst  Roman  Catholics  (outside  the 
States)  it  still  affords  hours  of  consolation.  Calcula- 
tions of  the  future  population  of  the  States  are  already 
171 


172     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

more  moderate.  Agricultural  experts  estimate  that 
long  before  the  middle  of  the  century  it  will  take 
every  acre  of  soil  in  the  States  to  feed  its  own  popula- 
tion. The  tide  of  emigration  has  turned,  and  the  native 
birth-rate  diminishes.  Only  rash  prophets  to-day 
would  attempt  to  forecast  the  future.  And  the  future 
of  American  Catholicism  is  even  more  precarious. 
Even  Catholic  writers  now  realise  that  every  1,000,000 
added  to  it  beyond  its  native  growth — which  is  slow 
— means  1,000,000  transferred  from  some  other 
branch  of  the  Roman  Church.  The  10,000,000  or 
so  Catholics  of  the  United  States  do  not  represent  a 
miraculous  addition  to  the  Vatican's  following.  They 
come  from  Ireland,  Austria,  Italy,  Germany,  Poland, 
France,  Canada  and  Mexico.  Indeed,  it  will  be 
apparent  in  the  course  of  this  chapter  that  they  are 
but  the  salvage  from  one  of  the  most  appalling  wrecks 
that  Catholicism  has  suffered  during  the  fatal  nine- 
teenth century.  They  do  not  represent  one  half 'of  the 
descendants  of  Catholic  immigrants  into  the  United 
States.  For  this  I  will  quote  a  dozen  Catholic 
authorities ;  and  I  will  establish  it  by  a  more  patient 
examination  of  statistics  than  has  yet  been  made. 

We  have  seen  so  often  how  little  of  the  temper  of 
the  sociologist  is  admitted  in  considering  indications 
of  Catholic  growth  that  we  are  quite  prepared  to  miss 
it  in  the  case  of  America.  At  the  same  time,  it  is 
remarkable  how  serious  writers  (like  Mr  Bodley  or 
M.  Brunetiere)  can  have  forgotten  for  a  moment  the 
real  character  of  the  American  Catholic  Church.  Its 
clergy  list  to-day  is  a  mass  of  Irish,  German,  French, 
Italian  and  Polish  names.  Its  story  is,  on  the  face  of 
the  matter,  the  story  of  a  colossal  and  religiously  fatal 
scattering  of  emigrants  over  a  vast  wilderness,  and 
then  the  slow,  laborious,  and  to  a  very  great  extent 
unsuccessful,  reordering  of  them  into  a  Church. 


THE   UNITED   STATES  173 

There  were  at  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
three  patches  of  Catholicism  on  the  broad  territory 
that  now  makes  up  the  United  States.  The  French 
freely  overflowed  the  northern  frontier  from  Canada : 
the  Spaniards  peopled  the  whole  of  the  southern 
and  eastern  border  as  far  as  California:  and  there 
was  an  English  settlement  in  Maryland  on  the 
eastern  coast.  The  English  colony  was  founded  by 
Lord  Baltimore,  a  convert  to  Catholicism,  in  1634. 
Fleeing  from  the  persecution  of  the  English  govern- 
ment, and  met  by  the  almost  equally  harsh  rule  of  the 
colonists,  a  group  of  about  200  families,  with  one 
priest,  obtained  a  concession  on  the  coast,  and  founded 
the  Land  of  Mary.  The  actual  States  of  Florida, 
New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Texas  and  California,  with 
their  large  Catholic  population,  were,  of  course,  not 
in  the  Union  at  that  time.  The  only  colony  in  which 
Roman  Catholics  met  with  any  toleration  at  all  was 
the  Quaker  colony  of  Pennsylvania.  They  were  at 
once  dreaded  and  despised,  and  were  nearly  every- 
where repressed  with  a  cruelty  only  less  than  that 
of  the  mother  country.  A  few  English,  Irish  and 
German  Catholics  penetrated  to  the  Protestant 
centres,  but  not  many  can  have  survived  the  re- 
pressive measures.  In  1700  there  were  only  seven 
Catholic  families  in  New  York  ;  in  1757  they  numbered 
about  10,000  in  Maryland  and  3000  in  Pennsylvania. 
A  few  priests,  under  the  direction  of  the  English 
Vicar  Apostolic,  tried  to  keep  their  faith  alive.  The 
French  priests  in  Louisiana  and  the  Spaniards  in  the 
south  claim  to  have  converted  about  100,000  Indians, 
but  their  work  fell  to  pieces,  and  of  the  250,000 
Indians  of  to-day  Sadlier's  Catholic  Directory  only 
claims  58,000  (and  barely  that  number  are  officially 
described  as  civilised).  The  French  were  driven  out 
by  the  Indians  and  the  English.      It  is  assuredly  im- 


174     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

pressive  to  throw  on  the  screen  this  humble  picture 
of  American  Catholicism  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  then  replace  it  at  once  with  the  imposing  picture  of 
its  present  power  and  extent.  But  the  social  student 
prefers  to  proceed  more  slowly,  and  finds  more  charm 
in  watching  the  process  of  its  growth. 

At  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
(1776)  the  Catholics  numbered  about  30,000,  and  had 
twenty-six  priests.  Then  the  sun  broke  at  last  on 
their  fortunes,  and  the  story  of  advance  began.  Small 
as  their  number  was,  they  were  able  to  count  in  the 
struggle,  and  they  sided  with  Washington.  When  it 
was  over,  most  of  the  states  abolished  or  greatly 
modified  their  anti-Catholic  measures,  and  the  people 
laid  aside  their  bitterness.  The  alliance  with  France 
against  England  gave  them  further  encouragement, 
and  after  1790  numbers  of  the  French  fugitives  went 
to  the  States.  By  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  they  numbered  at  least  100,000,  and  German 
and  Irish  Catholics  were  arriving  as  fast  as  England's 
command  of  the  sea  allowed. 

I  may  observe  that,  not  only  must  there  have  been 
a  considerable  leakage  already — there  were  only  fifty 
priests  to  the  100,000  known  Catholics — but  the  germs 
of  what  is  now  known  as  Americanism  can  be  dis- 
cerned easily  enough.  Carroll,  the  Prefect  Apostolic 
(after  the  secession  from  England),  was  made  bishop 
in  1790.  Both  he  and  other  early  bishops  (such  as 
Spalding  and  England)  give  remarkable  pictures  of 
the  vitality  and  independence  of  their  clergy.  French, 
German  and  Irish  priests  and  flocks  anathematised 
each  other  freely  (as  they  do  to-day),  while  the 
Americans  looked  on  with  cold  disdain,  and  gave 
no  recruits  to  the  clergy.  Carroll's  reports  to  Rome, 
which  are  quite  as  "  American  "  as  any  sent  to-day, 
paint  a  dismal  picture  ;  and  the  biographies  of  England 


THE   UNITED   STATES  175 

and  Spalding  give  the  same  impression.  The  work 
of  organisation  in  that  vast  territory  was  gigantic  ; 
and  it  was  grievously  hampered  by  racial  quarrels, 
financial  scandals  and  constant  waves  of  immigrants. 
There  was  heroic  stuff  in  those  early  American 
bishops  and  many  of  their  clergy. 

By  1820  the  Catholics  numbered  about  300,000. 
They  had  increased  tenfold  in  half-a-century,  but  the 
loss  must  have  been  considerable.  It  is  calculated 
(no  returns  were  made  until  1821)  that  250,000 
immigrants,  chiefly  from  Catholic  quarters,  had  arrived 
between  1790  and  1820.  The  long  war  had  restricted 
the  stream  until  18 15,  but  after  that  date,  and  with 
the  invention  of  the  steamship,  it  ran  freely.  By 
1830  the  Catholics  had  increased  to  500,000  in  a 
total  population  of  13,000,000.  But  by  this  date  we 
find  means  of  checking  the  loose  calculations  that  are 
offered  us,  and  of  estimating  the  loss.  In  1836  Bishop 
England  of  Charlestown  (a  diocese  embracing  the  two 
Carolinas  and  Georgia)  attended  a  congress  of  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith  at  Lyons, 
and  felt  bound  to  rebuke  the  inflated  statements  that 
were  already  being  made  about  the  American  Church. 
He  was  asked  to  draw  up  an  official  report,  and  this 
interesting  document  may  be  read  to-day  in  his 
collected  works.1 

He  deprecates  the  "  very  delusive  fancies  "  that  are 
already  entertained  in  Europe  in  regard  to  the  Church 
in  America ;  and  says  that  instead  of  gain  there  has 
been  a  very  serious  loss.  "  I  have  no  doubt  in  my 
mind,"  he  says,  "that  within  50  years  millions  have 
been  lost  to  the  Church."  Half-a-century  ago  (1786) 
the  population  of  the  States  was  less  than  4,000,000  ; 
now  it  is  14,000,000.     There  must  have  been  (count- 

1  Vol.  iii.  p.  226.  The  memorandum  was  written,  with  great  care, 
at  Rome  by  this  most  zealous  prelate. 


176     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

ing  the  inclusion  of  Louisiana  and  Florida)  an 
accession  from  without  of  8,000,000,  and  at  least  half 
of  these  were  Catholics.  As  the  Catholic  population 
in  1836  is  only  1,200,000,  he  estimates  the  loss,  up  to 
1836,  at  3,750,000 !  In  his  own  diocese  he  had  reason 
to  believe  there  were  50,000  people  of  Catholic  origin. 
Of  these  only  10,000  were  faithful ;  and  he  considers 
his  diocese  to  be  typical.  The  loss  is  due,  he  says,  as 
much  to  the  faults  of  the  clergy  and  to  the  energy  of  the 
Protestants  as  to  the  scarcity  of  priests  and  churches. 
This  very  interesting  and  authoritative  document 
is  naturally  distasteful  to  later  Catholic  writers,  and 
some  of  them  (like  Mr  T.  O'Gorman)  hint  that 
Bishop  England — one  of  the  greatest  prelates  in  the 
story  of  their  Church — had  no  foundation  whatever 
for  his  statements.1  One  may  be  quite  sure  that 
Bishop  England  penned  those  statements,  written  for 
the  supreme  council  of  the  Society  of  the  Propaga- 
tion of  the  Faith,  with  the  gravest  sense  of  responsi- 
bility, but  there  were  few  exact  returns  in  those  days, 
and  we  must  slightly  curtail  his  estimate  of  the  net 
loss.  Dr  Carroll  Wright  ("Outlines  of  Practical 
Sociology ")  gives  the  population  of  the  States  as 
3,924,314  in  1790,  and  17,000,000  in  1840.  From 
1820  to  1840  about  742,000  immigrants  arrived,  and 
it  is  calculated  that  only  250,000  came  in  the  preceding 
years.  But  there  is  clearly  something  wrong  with 
this  calculation.  The  four  million  Americans  of  1790 
cannot  have  grown  to  more  than  ten  millions,  by 
natural  increase,  in  fifty  years.  As  the  population 
was  certainly  17,000,000  in  1840,  one  must  admit  an 
outside  accession  of  6,000,000  or  7,000,000 — or  on  the 
most  generous  possible  estimate  of  natural  increase, 

1  The  references  are  to  Mr  O'Gorman's  "  History  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States,"  in  Schaffs  Church  History 
Series. 


THE   UNITED   STATES  177 

5,000,000.  It  is  therefore  ridiculous  for  Mr  O'Gorman 
to  reckon  the  total  immigration  between  1789  and 
1835  as  only  514,159;  that  would  involve  a  fourfold 
increase  of  the  population,  by  births,  in  fifty  years! 
Now,  of  the  5,000,000  immigrants,  two-thirds  at 
least  (to  judge  from  the  first  ten  years'  returns)  were 
Catholics.  Add  to  these  the  inhabitants  of  Louisiana 
and  Florida,  and  300,000  native  Catholics.  There 
should  have  been  at  least  4,000,000  Catholics  in 
the  States  (probably  5,000,000)  in  1840.  In  point  of 
fact,  the  Catholic  estimate  for  1845  is  1,071,800.  Mr 
Bodley  says  they  were  "nearly  a  million"  in  1840. 
But  as  there  were  only  707  priests  and  675  chapels  in 
the  States  in  1845  even  these  estimates  must  be  very 
optimistic.  The  loss  must  have  far  exceeded  3,000,000 
by  1840.  When  Mr  O'Gorman  tells  us  that  there 
were  150,000  Catholics  in  New  York  State  in  1826, 
and  only  ten  priests,  we  should  not  be  surprised  at  this. 

But  we  have  reached  the  period  of  heavy  immigra- 
tion, and  may  treat  the  whole  question  of  leakage  on 
a  broader  scale.  From  18 15  onwards  the  Church 
expanded  incessantly.  It  had  1,600,000  followers 
in  1850;  2,789,000  in  i860;  4,600,000  in  1870 ; 
6,300,000  in  1880;  8,000,000  in  1890;  and  it  claims 
10,000,000  to-day.  On  these  figures  the  wildest 
speculations  have  been  expended,  and  I  may  quote  a 
few  of  these  before  entering  on  a  sober  analysis. 

Bishop  England  has  had  many  supporters  amongst 
American  Catholics  in  his  depressing  estimate,  while 
others  have  differed  from  them  to  the  extent  of 
10,000,000,  or  even  more.  Speaking  in  Paris  in 
1892,  Archbishop  Ireland  said  that  his  Church  had 
probably  lost  1,000,000  or  1,250,000  followers 
through  insufficiency  of  priests,  but  had  found  com- 
pensation in  "a  stream  of  conversions."1  Mr 
1  "  La  situation  du  Catholicisme  aux  Etats  Unies." 

M 


178     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

O'Gorman  will  not  even  admit  the  1,000,000.  By  a 
curious  process  of  arithmetic  that  I  need  not  examine 
he  concludes  that  the  Catholics  of  the  States  ought 
to  number  12,000,000,  and  he  calmly  pushes  aside 
census  results  and  Catholic  directories,  and  says  he 
believes  they  do.  He  is,  however,  generous  enough 
to  give  us  some  very  different  Catholic  opinions.  In 
1852  an  Irish  priest,  Father  Mullen,  said  that  there 
were  2,000,000  Irish  apostates  in  the  States  in  1850. 
Mr  J.  O'Kane  Murray,  "Popular  History  of  the 
Catholic  Church,'*  said  that  by  1870  there  were 
24,000,000  people  of  Irish  extraction  in  the  United 
States — a  preposterous  assertion.  The  "  Lucerne 
Memorial,"  addressed  to  the  Pope  in  1891  by  Mr 
Cahensly  and  other  Catholics,  submitted  that  there 
were  26,000,000  descendants  of  Catholic  emigrants  in 
the  States,  and  of  these  16,000,000  had  apostatised. 

Canon  Delassus,  an  ardent  French  priest,  gives 
some  further  opinions  in  his  "  Americanisme."  He 
says  that  when  M.  Brunetiere  returned  to  tell  Paris 
of  the  remarkable  progress  of  the  American  Church 
{Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  November  1898),  the  Ve'rite', 
Quebec,  retorted  that,  according  to  Catholic  authori- 
ties, there  had  been  a  loss  of  15,000,000  to  17,000,000. 
He  also  quotes  a  Roman  prelate  saying  to  a  cor- 
respondent of  the  New  York  Freemans  Journal 
(3rd  December  1898),  that  if  one  takes  account  of  the 
eighty  years  of  emigration  one  finds  that  "the  number 
of  Catholics  in  the  United  States  ought  to  be  double 
what  it  is  to-day."  The  Freeman  claimed  that  there 
were  40,000,000  people  of  Catholic  extraction  in  the 
States,  and  that  20,000,000  of  these  had  gone  over  to 
Protestantism.1 

These    unpleasant   estimates   came  to   the    surface 

1  These  quotations  will  be  found  in  Delassus's  book, 
"L'Americanisme,"  pp.  354-356. 


THE   UNITED    STATES  179 

in  the  shock  of  "modernists,"  or  Americanists,  as 
they  say  in  France,  and  ultramontanes.  Others  arise 
out  of  the  German- Irish  embroilment  amongst  the 
American  Catholics.  Father  Walburg,  pastor  of  St 
Augustine's  Church  at  Cincinnati,  wrote,  in  1889,  a 
brochure  with  the  title,  The  Question  of  Nationality 
in  its  Relation  to  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  Unitea 
States.  He  is  not  over-indulgent  to  his  own  country- 
men since  he  says  that  of  the  5,000,000  German 
Catholic  emigrants  and  their  descendants  only 
1,500,000  have  remained  faithful  (p.  26).  But  he 
finds  an  even  greater  apostasy  among  the  Irish.  In 
brief,  he  calculates — on  data  supplied  by  General 
Von  Stein wehr — that  there  should  be  18,000,000  Irish 
Catholics,  5,000,000  German  Catholics,  and  2,000,000 
French,  Italian,  Polish,  etc.,  in  the  States  in  1889. 
As  the  Catholic  Directory  only  claims  8,157,678,  he 
concludes  that  the  loss,  without  counting  native 
Catholics  or  converts,  is  17,000,000.  He  claims  that 
the  details  he  gives  in  regard  to  his  own  town, 
Cincinnati,  fully  confirms  this. 

Lastly,  I  will  notice  the  estimate  of  an  Irish  priest 
who  made  a  missionary  tour  in  1901.  Father 
Shinnors  and  some  fellow  Oblates  were  borrowed  by 
the  American  Church  for  "  revival  services,"  and  on 
his  return  he  described  his  experiences  in  The  Irish 
Ecclesiastical  Record  (February,  May  and  July  1902). 
He  found  that  deserters  "could  be  counted  by  the 
million."  On  the  basis  of  emigration  from  Ireland  he 
calculated  that  there  should  now  be  10,000,000  Irish 
Catholics  in  the  States,  or — adding  Germans,  etc. — a 
total  Catholic  population  of  20,000,000.  He  found  it 
less  than  10,000,000.  American  prelates  begged  him 
to  arrest  the  tide  of  emigration  from  Ireland.  "  For 
your  people,"  one  of  them  said  to  him,  "America  is 
the  road  to  hell."     They  were  always  the  first  of  the 


180     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

emigrants  to  be  "  Americanised  " — a  strange  comment, 
from  an  honest  Irish  priest,  on  the  famed  faith  of  the 
Irish.  He  says  that  at  the  Catholic  Congress  at 
Chicago  (in  connection  with  the  Parliament  of 
Religions),  in  1893,  one  of  the  speakers,  Miss  Elder, 
put  the  loss  at  20,000,000.  This  loss,  moreover,  he 
says,  is  not  merely  a  reminiscence  of  the  days  when 
a  too  slender  clergy  failed  to  incorporate  the  masses 
of  emigrants.  He  found  ample  priests  in  every 
diocese  in  1901,  yet  an  appalling  leakage  going  on 
everywhere. 

Here,  then,  we  have  sincere  Roman  Catholics 
estimating  the  loss  of  their  Church  in  the  United 
States  at  10,000,000,  15,000,000,  17,000,000,  and  even 
20,000,000,  in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
It  is  a  rare  and  curious  spectacle,  especially  when 
our  chief  difficulty,  up  to  the  present,  has  been  to  get 
behind  the  assurances  of  integrity,  if  not  progress,  that 
Catholic  officials  usually  urge  on  us.  But  the  very 
divergence  of  the  estimates  warns  us  to  proceed  with 
caution,  and  we  discover  the  bases  of  calculation  to  be 
delicate  and  elusive. 

The  problem  is,  in  fact,  a  difficult  one :  it  is  the 
problem  of  determining  the  various  national  elements 
in  the  population  of  the  United  States,  before  which 
many  a  sociologist  has  quailed.  I  have  made  a 
patient  analysis  of  the  official  data,  and  availed 
myself  of  all  previous  work  on  the  subject,  and  find  it 
possible  to  reach  a  fairly  precise  solution. 

In  the  first  place  let  us  try  to  determine  what  the 
Catholic  population  ought  to  be,  and  then  what  it 
really  is.  For  the  first  study  we  need  to  consider  the 
native  growth  of  Catholicism  and  the  proportion  of 
Catholics  among  the  emigrants.  On  the  former  point 
there  is  not  room  for  great  divergence.  Taking  1820 
— the  date  when  returns  of  emigration  begin — as  our 


THE   UNITED   STATES  181 

starting-point,  we  find  that  the  Catholic  population  is 
given  by  Mr  Bodley — and  this  is  the  highest  estimate 
— as  300,000.  Now,  the  Americans,  especially  urban 
Americans  (which  includes  most  of  the  Catholics) 
breed  slowly.  Father  Shinnors  points  out  that  the 
census  returns  for  Massachusetts  in  1880  showed 
71*28  per  cent,  of  the  native  women  to  be  childless; 
and  that  the  returns  for  New  York  showed  that  75 
per  cent,  of  the  native  women  had  a  trifle  over  one 
child  each.  The  birth-rate  has  notoriously  diminished 
of  late  years.  American  social  writers  are  inexhaust- 
ible on  the  subject.  Let  us  assume,  however,  that 
there  is  less  deliberate  restriction  among  Catholic 
American  mothers,  as  I  should  expect.  The  300,000 
of  1820  cannot  have  grown  to  more  than  1,000,000  in 
1900,  or,  at  the  outside,  a  fraction  over. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  seemingly  formidable  problem 
of  estimating  the  descendants  of  Catholic  emigrants 
since  1820.  There  is  not  in  the  census  returns  an 
analysis  of  "  origins,"  as  in  the  case  of  Canada,  but 
two  or  three  sets  of  figures  are  given  that  help  us  to 
reach  a  very  confident  conclusion. 

In  the  first  place  we  may  allow  for  the  utmost 
possible  growth  of  the  Americans  of  1820.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  States  then  numbered  9,600,000. 
I  propose  to  leave  the  negroes  and  Indians  out  of  ac- 
count, and  we  will  make  the  Church  an  allowance  for 
them  in  the  end.  There  were  in  1820  some  7,860,797 
whites  in  the  States.  There  are  to-day — or  were  in 
igoo — 67,000,000  whites,  excluding  the  Colonies. 
By  normal  growth  the  8,000,000  of  1820  cannot 
to-day,  in  view  of  the  facts  I  noticed,  number  more 
than  23,000,000.  Where  the  stock  has  been  renewed 
by  mixed  marriages  the  increment  must  go  to  the 
account  of  emigration.  There  are,  therefore,  about 
44,000,000  descendants  of  emigrants,  since    1820,  in 


182  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

the  population  of   1901.     What  proportion   of  these 
emigrants  were  Roman  Catholics  ? 

The  total  number  of  emigrants  between  1820  and 
1900  is  stated  in  the  report  of  the  Twelfth  Census  to 
be  19,115,221,  and  the  nationalities  of  them  are  given. 
In  the  following  table  I  give  the  figures  for  each 
nationality,  the  percentage  of  Catholics  in  each 
national  group,  and  the  approximate  number  of 
Catholics  in  each  group  on  the  basis  of  that  per- 
centage. In  the  bulk  of  cases  there  can  be  no  dispute 
about  the  percentage  in  the  countries  the  emigrants 
come  from.  In  other  cases  I  have  adopted  more  moder- 
ate figures,  and  the  note  will  explain  my  procedure.1 

Immigrants  into  the  United  States,   1820-1900 


Number  of 

Percentage 

Number  of 

Origin 

Immigrants 

of  Catholics 

Catholics 

Germany     . 

5,009,280 

36 

1,800,000 

Ireland 

3.871,253 

80 

3,100,000 

Great  Britain 

3,024,282 

5 

150,000 

Canada      and      New- 

foundland 

i,o49>939 

40 

420,000 

Norway,    Sweden   and 

Denmark 

1,619,000 

... 

Austria  and  Hungary  . 

1,027,195 

7i 

730,000 

Italy  .... 

1,040,457 

100 

1,040,457 

Russia-Poland     . 

926,902 

j  Russia, 
(Poland, 

75/ 

450,000 

France 

400,000 

100 

400,000 

Switzerland 

200,000 

41 

82,000 

Holland      . 

130,000 

35 

45,000 

Other  Countries  . 

816,913 

5° 

408,000 

19,115,221 

8,625,457 

1  Note. — The  Russians  and  Poles  are,  as  a  later  table  will  show, 
fairly  equal,  but  the  returns  do  not  separate  them.  The  last  un- 
classified group  contains  500,000  Chinese,  but  it  is  predominantly 
made  up  of  Mexicans,  South  Americans,  Spaniards,  Belgians,  etc. 


THE   UNITED   STATES  183 

Thus  of  the  actual  immigrants  into  the  States 
about  46  per  cent,  were  Roman  Catholics.  I  must 
add,  however,  that  since  1885  no  register  has  been 
kept  of  emigrants  from  Canada  and  Mexico.  As 
there  were  living  in  the  States  in  1900  some  395,000 
persons  who  had  been  born  in  French  Canada,  and 
103,000  who  had  been  born  in  Mexico,  this  means 
a  considerable  accession.  However,  these  are 
balanced  by  emigrant  Protestant  Canadians,  and 
our  figure  of  46  per  cent,  holds  good.  On  that  basis, 
of  the  44,000,000  descendants  of  emigrants  (and 
living  emigrants)  more  than  20,000,000  should  be 
Roman  Catholics. 

But  the  proportion  of  emigrants  from  different 
nations  has  varied  considerably  during  the  nineteenth 
century.  As  those  who  came  first  have  multiplied 
most,  we  must  see  if  our  results  are  altered  by  taking 
this  into  account.  The  rate  of  multiplication  is  not 
the  same  for  emigrants  as  for  a  normal  population. 
The  vast  majority  are  near  the  verge  of  manhood, 
or  are  quite  mature.  The  census  returns  show  this 
to  be  the  case  to-day  ;  and  it  was  more  likely  to  be 

Italians  and  French  are  practically  all  of  Catholic  extraction.  For 
Ireland  Mr  Bodley  claims  seven-eighths  as  Catholic,  and  Father 
Walburg  nine-tenths.  If  the  reader  cares  to  follow  either,  it  will 
increase  the  net  Catholic  loss.  The  figure  for  Germany  is  from  Dr 
Juraschek's  authoritative  "Die  Staaten  Europas."  Father  Walburg 
agrees.  The  Austro-Hungarian,  Swiss  and  Dutch  figures  are  from 
Juraschek.  Scandinavians  are  practically  all  Protestants.  The  only 
difficulty  is  in  regard  to  Great  Britain.  Most  of  the  emigrants  left 
after  1840,  when  inhabitants  of  Catholic  parentage  began  to  form  a 
good  percentage.  To  avoid  controversy  I  take  a  low  figure.  If 
the  reader  insists  on  a  higher  one,  it  will  only  add  to  the  ultimate 
Catholic  loss.  But  there  is  no  divergence  possible  that  would 
seriously  modify  the  result.  The  number  of  immigrants  from 
France,  Switzerland  and  Holland  is,  to  a  small  extent,  inferential, 
and  is  based  on  the  table  in  Dr  Carroll  D.  Wright's  "Sociology" 
and  the  following  tables. 


184     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 


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THE   UNITED   STATES  185 

the  case  in  the  hard  early  days  of  emigration.  In 
fact,  in  order  to  convert  the  19,000,000  emigrants 
into  the  44,000,000  who  undoubtedly  represent  them 
to-day,  I  find  that  one  must  multiply  those  who  came 
between  1820  and  1830  by  five  ;  those  of  1830- 1850 
by  four  ;  those  of  1850- 1870  by  three  :  those  of  1870- 
1890  by  two  :  and  add  the  3,500,000  of  1890  to 
1900.  The  table  on  page  184  shows  the  number  of 
emigrants,  of  each  chief  nationality,  arriving  in  the 
States  during  these  five  periods.  In  the  last  column 
of  the  table  I  give  the  result  of  the  multiplication 
for  each  table. 

In  this  way  we  account  satisfactorily  for  the  actual 
population  of  the  United  States.  Its  white  population 
in  1820  (7,866,797)  may,  at  the  outside,  be  presumed 
to  have  trebled  in  eighty  years,  and  the  rest  of  the 
67,000,000  whites  of  to-day  are  emigrants  and  their 
descendants  since  that  date.  We  see  that  many  of 
the  guesses  at  the  Catholic  leakage  (even  on  the  part 
of  Catholics)  start  from  quite  erroneous  data.  There 
are  not  20,000,000  Irish  in  the  States,  as  Father 
Walburg  says,  or  24,000,000  as  Mr  O'Kane  Murray 
says,  nor  are  there  15,000,000  Germans.  The  figures 
I  give  are  official,  and,  whatever  ratio  of  multiplication 
one  takes,  the  proportion  will  remain  the  same. 

The  next  question  is,  What  proportion  of  these 
ought  to  be  included  in  the  American  Catholic  Church 
to-day  ?  To  estimate  this  I  take  the  last  column  of 
the  preceding  table,  and  analyse  it  on  the  basis  ot 
percentage  of  Catholics  in  each  nationality  that  I 
have  previously  explained : 


[Table 


186     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Number  of  Catholic  Immigrants  and 
Descendants 


Total  Immi- 

Percentage 

Number 

Nationality 

grants  and 

of 

of 

Descendants 

Catholics 

Catholics 

Germany    . 

12,446,986 

36 

4,481,000 

Ireland 

10,830,596 

80 

8,664,477 

Great  Britain 

7,570,840 

5 

378,542 

Canada 

2,417,615 

40 

967,044 

Norway  and  Sweden    . 

2,326,314 

Austria-Hungary 

1,469,483 

7i 

1,043.330 

Italy  .... 

1,459.444 

100 

1,459.444 

Russia-Poland1  . 

1,260,928 

H) 

497,000 

France 

1,151,100 

100 

1,151,100 

Switzerland 

45°.443 

41 

186,000 

Holland      . 

276,500 

35 

94,500 

Denmark    . 

365.596 

Others 

2,472,168 

5° 

1,286,084 

44,502,013 

20,158,521 

When  we  thus  analyse  the  nationalities  according 
to  the  date  of  emigration,  we  reach  substantially  the 
same  conclusion  as  before.  Roman  Catholics  form 
more  than  45  per  cent,  of  the  accessions  to  the 
population  of  the  United  States  since  1820.  More 
than  20,000,000  should  have  been  added  to  the 
Roman  Church  in  that  country  (apart  from  the 
Philippines)  between  1820  and  1900.  Two  further 
tables  will  show  that  this  conclusion  is  thoroughly 
sound.     The  first  table  shows  the  number  of  foreign- 

1  Note. — The  Russians  and  Poles  are  fairly  equal  in  number,  as 
the  next  table  will  show.  But,  as  there  are  only  13,000  members 
of  the  Russian  Church  in  the  States,  the  proportion  of  Roman 
Catholics  is  probably  much  higher  than  I  claim.  The  unclassified 
2,472,168  is  largely  made  up  of  Mexicans,  Spanish  Americans, 
Belgians,  Spaniards  and  other  Catholics. 


THE   UNITED   STATES 


187 


born  whites  in  the  States  in  1900,  with  the  percentage 
of  Catholics  ;  the  second  shows  the  number  of  whites 
with  both  parents  foreign,  and  the  percentage  of 
Catholics.  The  figures  which  I  analyse  are  taken 
from  the  census  report : 


Number  of  Foreign-born  Whites  in  the 
United  States  in   1900 


Total 

Percentage 

Number  of 

Nationality 

Number 

of  Catholics 

Catholics 

Ireland 

1,615,419 

80 

1,292,334 

Germany    . 

2,663,418 

36 

958,827 

Italy  . 

484,027 

100 

484,027 

French  Canada 

395,066 

100 

395>°66 

Austria 

275.907 

86 

372,000 

Bohemia     . 

156,891 

France        .         , 

104,197 

100 

104,197 

Holland     . 

104,931 

35 

37.ooo 

Hungary     . 

i45»7M 

56 

81,500 

Mexico       . 

103,393 

100 

103,393 

Poland 

383>4Q7 

75 

287,556 

Switzerland 

115.593 

41 

47,000 

English  Canada 

784,741 

25 

196,185 

Denmark    . 

153.805 

England 

840,513 

5 

42,000 

Scotland 

233.524 

8-4 

20,000 

Russia 

423,726 

4 

16,950 

Norway 

336,388 

... 

... 

Sweden 

572,014 

... 

... 

Wales 

93.586 

... 

... 

China 

8i,534 

Unclassified 

273.442 

5° 

140,000 

10,341,276 

4.578,035 

188  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Number  of  Inhabitants  of  the  United  States 
in   i9oo  with  both  parents  foreign-born 


Nationality 

Total 

Number 

Percentage 
of  Catholics 

Number  of 
Catholics 

Germany     . 

6,234,220 

36 

2,244,318 

Ireland 

3,991.417 

80 

3>I93,»34 

French  Canada  . 

635,5io 

100 

635, 5IQ 

Italy  .... 

705,891 

100 

705,891 

France 

170,839 

100 

170,839 

Poland 

668,323 

75 

5OI>243 

Austria  and  Bohemia  . 

732,504 

86 

629,982 

England 

1,360,345 

5 

68,000 

Scotland     . 

419,397 

8.4 

34,95° 

English  Canada  . 

680,686 

25 

170,171 

Hungary     . 

210,188 

56 

120,000 

Switzerland 

187,500 

41 

76,000 

Scandinavia  and  Wales 

1,850,524 

0 

... 

Unclassified  (or  mixed) 

parentage 

1,335,414 

50 

667,707 

19,851,880 

9,244,509 

I  need  not  trouble  the  reader  with  any  further  sums 
in  arithmetic.  I  will  only  observe  that  of  those  with 
mixed  foreign  parentage  200,000  have  one  Irish 
parent,  and  that,  of  a  further  5,000,000  with  one 
foreign  and  one  native  born  parent,  976,765  are 
Irish.  When  we  recollect  that  the  Church  always 
claims  all  the  children  of  a  mixed  marriage  we 
should  admit  a  further  large  accession  from  mixed 
marriages.  But  I  prefer  to  remain  on  solid  ground, 
and  will  offer  no  estimate.  It  is  clear  that  something 
over  20,000,000  Catholics  should  have  been  added  to 
the  American  Church  between  1820  and  1900.  As 
the  emigrants  before  that  date  were  very  largely 
Irish,  French  and  French  Canadians  ;  as  there 
were  some  300,000  Catholics  in  1820,  and  as  the 
incorporation    of    Louisiana    and    the    southern    and 


THE    UNITED   STATES  189 

western  states  brought  some  100,000  more,  there 
should  be  to-day  a  Catholic  population  of  at  least 
3,000,000,  apart  from  these  20,000,000  emigrants  and 
their  descendants.  We  saw  that  Bishop  England 
put  the  loss  at  3,750,000  in  1836,  when  the  Catholic 
emigrants,  since  1820,  did  not  number  500,000. 
The  Roman  Catholic  Church  ought  to-day  to  num- 
ber at  least  23,000,000,  without  counting  a  single 
convert. 

The  next  point  is  to  determine  its  actual  extent. 
I  will  not  labour  the  point,  since  it  claims,  in  round 
numbers,  only  10,000,000  followers,  but  a  few  observa- 
tions are  necessary.  It  must  be  remembered  that,  in 
the  case  of  the  United  States  census,  we  have  only  the 
ecclesiastical  returns  of  the  Catholic  population.  It 
cannot  be  pretended  for  a  moment  that  these  have 
the  same  value  as  we  should  attribute  to  impartial 
enumerators.  We  saw  in  the  last  chapter  how  the 
ecclesiastical  estimate  for  India  exceeded  even  the 
census  returns  by  40  per  cent,  and  some  such  excess 
is  always  found  ;  although  the  census  return  itself 
is  rarely  acceptable.  Whatever  conclusion  we  reach 
on  those  figures,  therefore,  will  be  optimistic. 

For  the  census  of  1890  the  information  was,  the 
official  analyst,  Mr  Carroll,  says  {Report  of  Statistics 
of  Churches),  supplied  by  the  respective  denomina- 
tions. Up  to  that  year  the  Catholic  authorities  had 
been  allowed  to  send  in  a  bare  statement  of  what 
they  regarded  as  the  number  of  their  followers.  Such 
returns  are  worthless,  as  the  priest  is  apt  to  include 
in  them  the  most  pronounced  seceders,  merely  calling 
them  "bad  Catholics."  For  the  census  of  1890  the 
Catholic  authorities  were  "induced,"  Mr  Carroll  says, 
to  return  rather  the  number  of  their  communicants. 
They  reported  them  as  6,231,417.  It  is  very  rarely 
noted   that,   even    if  this    is   the   correct   number  of 


190     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Easter  communions  in  the  United  States,  as  we 
suppose,  it  is  not  the  number  of  individual  com- 
municants, but  much  in  excess  of  this.  The  period 
for  making  the  "Easter  duty"  is  extended  over 
several  weeks,  and  large  numbers  of  Catholics  com- 
municate several  times  during  the  period.  We  shall 
be  safe  in  taking  the  round  number,  at  the  most,  of 
6,000,000.  This  means  the  entire  faithful  population 
over  the  age  of  nine,  since  no  one  is  excused  from 
this  grave  duty,  the  sick  communicating  in  their 
own  homes.  The  proportion  of  the  American  com- 
munity under  the  age  of  ten  is  about  one-fourth.  If 
we  add  these  we  have  the  maximum  figure  of 
8,000,000  Catholics  in  the  United  States  in  1890. 
There  were  then  8777  churches,  9157  priests. 
Dropping  a  proportion  of  monks  from  the  latter 
figure,  we  get  an  average  of  nearly  1000  Catholics 
per  priest  and  per  church — an  abnormal  ratio,  50 
per  cent,  higher  than  that  of  London.  We  must 
regard  the  figure  of  8,000,000  in  1890  as  very  opti- 
mistic. The  total  seating  capacity  of  the  churches 
was  only  3,365,754.  I  may  add  that  Sadlier's 
Catholic  Directory  put  the  Catholic  population  in 
1891  at  8,227,039.  Hoffman's  Catholic  Directory 
gave  the  Catholic  population  in  1895  as  9,077,865, 
the  number  of  priests  as  10,053,  of  whom  2507  were 
monastic,  and  the  number  of  chapels  as  9309,  with  a 
few  small  stations.  Here  again  we  have  a  claim  for 
an  average  of  nearly  1000  souls  per  active  priest  and 
per  church,  that  we  must  regard  with  great  diffidence. 
The  analysis  of  the  returns  for  1901  are  not  to 
hand  as  I  write,  but  I  learn  from  an  American  source 
that  the  total  of  Catholic  communicants  was  8,447,801. 
This  figfure  includes  Greek  and  other  Catholics  not 
owing  allegiance  to  the  Vatican,  besides  a  number 
who  have  communicated  twice,  or  more  frequently, 


THE   UNITED   STATES  191 

during  the  Easter  period.  It  will  be  quite  safe  to 
take  the  round  number  of  8,000,000  as  the  total 
of  individual  Roman  Catholic  communicants.  An 
increase  of  2,000,000  in  one  decade  is  impressive — 
until  we  glance  at  our  emigration  table.  We  then 
find  that  1,958,000  Catholic  emigrants  entered  the 
United  States  between  1890  and  1900;  and  to  these 
we  must  add  a  large  number  of  unregistered  immigrants 
across  the  frontier  from  Canada  and  Mexico.  Much 
more  than  2,000,000,  most  probably  (if  we  estimate 
the  Canadian  and  Spanish  Catholics  by  preceding 
tables  and  the  analysis  of  parentage)  2,250,000, 
Catholics  were  added  to  the  population  by  emigration 
during  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
As  the  native  Catholic  population  should  have  in- 
creased by  900,000  from  births  alone  during  that 
decade,  we  get,  instead  of  increase,  an  actual  loss 
on  the  decade  of  considerably  more  than  1,000,000 
souls !  Further,  8,000,000  communicants  means 
about  10,000,000  for  the  entire  Catholic  body  in  1900, 
as  the  children  under  nine  are  much  less  than  a 
fourth  of  the  population  in  the  States.  Yet  even 
this  figure  cannot  be  accepted  with  confidence. 
There  are  not  more  than  10,000  active  priests,  and 
this  would  mean  a  ratio  of  1000  souls  per  priest.  It 
is  about  500  in  England.  We  cannot  very  well  test 
the  population  in  America  by  the  number  of  school 
children,  as,  although  the  American  schools,  which 
admit  only  Bible-reading  without  comment,  and  are 
in  many  states  purely  secular,  are  violently  assailed 
by  the  Catholics,  a  number  of  their  children  must 
attend  them.  Still,  in  view  of  the  violent  hostility 
to  the  State  schools  and  the  intense  desire  to  build 
separate  ones,  the  figures  are  instructive.  Father 
Shinnors  says  that  there  are  1,000,000  children  in 
Catholic  schools  and  institutions,  of  all  kinds,  in  the 


192     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

States.  Hoffman's  Directory  gave  the  number,  on 
exact  returns,  in  1895  as  918,207  (in  the  elementary 
schools,  775,070).  We  may  accept  the  round  number 
of  1,000,000  for  1900.  Multiplied  by  five,  the  very 
highest  possible  ratio,  it  gives  a  Catholic  population 
of  5,000,000.  It  is  preposterous  to  ask  us  to  believe 
that  more  than  half  the  Catholic  children  of  the 
United  States  attend  the  "godless  schools"  of  the 
secular  authorities. 

On  these  figures  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  faithful 
Catholics  of  the  United  States  do  not  number  more 
than  9,000,000.  They  probably  come  to  much  less, 
but  we  may  grant  the  round  number.  And  we  have 
already  seen  that  the  Catholic  population  ought  to 
be,  by  natural  increase  and  emigration,  at  least 
23,000,000.  If  I  have  erred,  I  have  erred  throughout 
on  the  side  of  moderation.  We  may  therefore  con- 
fidently regard  the  Roman  Church's  loss  in  the  United 
States  during  the  last  century  as  something  more 
than  14,000,000.  To  speak  of  a  loss  of  20,000,000, 
as  some  Catholic  writers  do,  is  to  use  uncertain  and 
conjectural  data.  To  speak  of  a  loss  of  1,000,000,  as 
Archbishop  Ireland  does,  is  simply  ludicrous.  And, 
whatever  number  of  converts  may  be  claimed  by  the 
American  Catholic  Church,  a  corresponding  number 
must  be  added  to  the  loss.  The  actual  population 
is  9,000,000  :  it  ought  to  be  23,000,000,  without  a 
single  convert. 

This  figure,  the  reader  must  bear  in  mind,  has  been 
reached  by  the  employment  of  statistics  provided  by 
the  Federal  Government,  analysed  by  the  ordinary 
percentage  of  denominations  in  each  country.  I  will 
be  content  to  suggest  a  few  lines  of  inquiry  by  which 
a  careful  American  student  might  add  2,000,000  or 
even  3,000,000  to  the  loss ;  but  I  have  not  the 
material   to   pursue   the  analysis.     Of  the   7,500,000 


THE   UNITED   STATES  193 

immigrants  (and  their  descendants)  from  Great  Britain 
I  have  only  claimed  5  per  cent,  as  Catholics.     It  is 
probable,   however,   that  a  large  proportion  of  them 
were  Irish  who  had  settled  for  a  time  in  England  or 
Scotland.     Again,  of  the  1,250,000  Russians  and  Poles 
I  have  only  claimed  39  per  cent.     But  the  Russian 
and  Greek  Churches  are  so  poorly  represented  in  the 
States  that  it  is  probable  a  much  higher  proportion 
were  Catholics.     Mixed  marriages  would  yield  a  still 
higher  figure.     There  were  5,000,000  with  one  foreign- 
born  and  one  native-born  parent  in  1900,  and  nearly 
half  the  former  were  Catholics.     This  should  have  in- 
creased the  Catholic  body,  on  the  Church's  rule  that 
all  children  must  be  baptised.     Probably  if  these  lines 
of   inquiry   could    be    carried   out    in    America,    the 
14,000,000  loss  would  rise  to  16,000,000  or  17,000,000. 
This  enormous  leakage,  we  saw,  is  not  a  matter  of 
past  history,  but  goes  on  very  heavily  still.     A  million, 
at  least,  were  lost  in  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century.     With  a  church  accommodation  for  less  than 
4,000,000  people,  and  school  accommodation  for  less 
than  1,000,000  children,  it  is  likely  to  continue.     And 
as  long  as  the  papacy  maintains  its  quixotic  hostility 
to    modern    culture    the   leakage   amongst    educated 
Americans  is  likely  to  increase. 

Lastly,  a  word  ought  to  be  said  on  the  cultural 
condition  of  Catholicism  in  the  United  States.  It  is 
notorious  that  they  are,  as  a  body,  burdened  with  a 
very  high  percentage  of  poor  and  illiterate.  Mr  M. 
M'Carthy  ("Education  in  Ireland,"  p.  21)  observes 
that  of  448  universities  and  colleges  in  the  United 
States  only  61  are  Roman  Catholic  ;  of  52,794  young 
men  passing  through  a  collegiate  course  only  5052 
are  Catholic;  and  of  3762  graduated  students  only 
166  are  Catholic.  These  things  are  of  deep  signific- 
ance to  the  social  student.     The  Church  is  largely 


194     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

recruited  from  the  illiterate  emigrants  who  flock  into 
the  country.  Of  the  3,250,000  illiterate  whites,  over 
the  age  of  ten,  at  the  last  census,  1,250,000  were 
foreign-born.  Nor  is  the  moral  tone  of  the  Catholic 
body  at  all  satisfactory.  For  several  decades  the 
proportion  of  Irish  Catholics  in  the  saloon  trade  in 
the  States  has  been  a  grave  scandal  to  the  Church, 
and  the  percentage  of  Irish  in  the  jails  and  work- 
houses is  a  very  long  way  out  of  all  proportion  to  their 
numbers.  Any  forecast  of  the  future  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  body  in  the  United  States  must  take  these 
things  into  account. 


SUMMARY    FOR    THE    ENGLISH-SPEAKING   WORLD 

Contrary  to  a  widespread  conviction,  there  has 
been  no  progress  made  by  the  Roman  Church  during 
the  nineteenth  century  in  anynormally  educated  portion 
of  the  English-speaking  world.  In  illiterate  islands 
like  Mauritius  and  the  West  Indies,  Catholicism,  as 
is  usual  in  such  conditions,  has  grown  in  proportion 
to  the  population.  In  India  and  Ceylon,  and  parts 
of  the  British  Empire  in  Africa,  it  has  made  positive 
advances ;  but  these  must  be  regarded  as  gains  of 
the  foreign-mission  order,  which  must  be  placed  on  an 
entirely  different  footing  from  gains  in  a  fully  civilised 
community.  In  the  latter  the  Church  of  Rome  again 
shows  a  large  net  loss  everywhere.  The  extra- 
ordinary dispersal  of  the  Irish  people  has  strangely 
misled  social  and  religious  writers,  and  the  enormous 
emigrations  from  Catholic  Germany,  Austria,  Italy 
and  Poland  to  the  New  World  are  rarely  appraised. 
The  conversions  that  have  been  made  in  the  English- 
speaking  world  redeem  only  a  small  fraction  of  the 


THE   UNITED   STATES  195 

heavy  losses.     Those  losses  are  moderately  expressed 
in  the  following  table  : — 

Great  Britain,              ...  2,250,000 

Canada,          ....  700,000 

Australasia     ....  550,000 

The  United  States     .            .            .  14,000,000 


Total    .  17,500,000 

Note  {Second  Edition). — Summaries  of  the  religious  census  for  1906 
in  the  United  States  have  been  cabled  as  this  second  edition  goes  to 
press,  and  it  is  claimed  that  they  are  not  consistent  with  the  author's 
figures.  The  briefest  analysis,  however,  suffices  to  show  that  they  do 
not  affect,  but  confirm,  my  conclusions. 

The  Roman  Catholic  total  is  returned  as  12,079,142,  and,  as  this  is 
contrasted  with  a  return  of  6,241,708  at  the  last  religious  census  (1890),  a 
claim  is  made  for  an  increase  of  nearly  100  per  cent.  The  simple  fact 
seems  to  be  generally  overlooked  that  the  figure  for  1890  is  the  total  of 
communicants  only,  while  the  figure  for  1906  includes  children  down  to 
the  age  of  a  few  days,  or  all  baptised  persons.  The  number  of  such 
baptised  members  in  1890  was  about  eight  millions,  so  that  the  increase 
(on  the  figures  given  in  the  census)  is  50,  and  not  100,  per  cent.  This  is 
merely  the  ratio  of  increase  of  the  population  of  the  United  States 
between  1890  and  1906  (62  millions  to  about  93  millions),  and  is  less 
than  the  increase  of  the  Baptists  and  Lutherans.  As  the  Catholic  birth- 
rate is  far  higher  than  the  Protestant  (being  largely  made  up  of  poor 
Italians,  Germans,  and  Poles),  the  increase  is  below  what  it  should  be. 

But  the  loss  of  the  American  Roman  Church  becomes  still  clearer 
when  we  reflect  that  the  total  of  12  millions  actually  includes  the  most 
flagrant  seceders  from  the  body.  The  figure  was  furnished  by  Archbishop 
Glennon  to  the  civic  authorities,  and  has  no  official  value  whatever.  It 
professedly  gives  the  number  of  those  who  were  once  baptised,  whether 
they  have  since  left  the  Church  or  no.  It  does  not,  therefore,  affect  my 
conclusions  in  the  least.  In  the  official  directions  of  the  United  States 
Census  Bureau  "communicants"  does  not  mean  those  who  do  actually 
communicate,  but  all  who  "would  be  permitted  to  communicate."  The 
result  is  a  farcical  confusion  of  actual  and  seceded  members.  As  the 
official  immigration  returns  for  the  last  fifteen  years  show  an  enormous 
preponderance  of  Catholic  immigrants,  and  a  great  decrease  of  Protestant 
immigrants,  it  is  plain  that  the  latest  results  are  in  full  harmony  with  my 
conclusions.  Of  about  5  million  immigrants  between  1890  and  1906,  at 
least  3^  millions  were  Roman  Catholics. 


CHAFFER   IX 

THE   GERMANIC  WORLD— THE  GERMAN  EMPIRE 

IT  is  one  of  the  most  singular  paradoxes  of 
modern  history  that,  while  the  Church  of  Rome 
is  so  visibly  failing  in  the  Latin  world,  it  seems 
to  be  making  progress,  or  at  least  holding  its  ground, 
among  the  Germanic  peoples.  We  have  heard  the 
cries  of  distress  that  are  wrung  from  devoted  Catholics 
in  France,  Italy  and  Spain  ;  and  we  have  seen  that  the 
better-informed  Catholics  speak  gravely  in  regard  to 
their  losses  in  the  English-speaking  world.  This  note 
is  rarely  heard  in  Catholic  Germany.  Since  the 
great  consolidation  of  the  Germanic  States  in  1871 
Catholics  have  found  themselves  forming  more  than 
one-third  of  one  of  the  most  powerful  Protestant 
countries  of  the  world,  holding  a  political  position 
of  exceptional  influence,  and  apparently  gaining  in 
number  upon  their  opponents.  In  Austria- Hungary 
they  still  command  seven-eighths  of  the  population ; 
in  Switzerland  they  approach  one-half;  in  Holland 
they  number  more  than  one-third. 

Here,  at  first  sight,  we  have  some  restoration  of  the 
balance  in  favour  of  the  Vatican.  When  it  speaks 
of  the  millions  it  has  won  on  its  foreign  missions  the 
social  student  is  little  moved.  The  cultural  value  of 
such  gains  affords  little  compensation  for  the  terrible 
losses  in  France,  Italy  and  the  United  States.  But 
the  Germanic  nations  are  in  the  first  line  of  culture, 
and  merely  to  hold  its  ground  amongst  them  is  an 
important  achievement  for  the  Roman  Church,  and 
one  of  great  significance  in  any  forecast  of  its  future. 

196 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  197 

It  might  plausibly  be  argued  that  the  Latin  peoples 
are  caught  in  a  temporary  rebellion  under  the  disturb- 
ing influence  of  their  sudden  admission  to  the  garish 
world  of  modern  culture,  and  that  any  inference  we 
may  draw  from  their  defection  must  be  modified  by 
the  discovery  of  Catholic  fidelity  in  lands  where  the 
population  has  long  enjoyed  a  high  degree  of  literacy. 

The  problem  of  the  Church  of  Rome  in  the 
Germanic  world  has,  therefore,  features  of  great 
interest  and  must  be  carefully  investigated.  It  may 
be  stated  at  once  that  the  Church  is  not  holding  its 
ground  in  that  part  of  Europe,  though  its  losses  there 
are  lighter  than  those  we  have  recorded  in  previous 
sections.  Further,  it  may  be  noted  at  once  that  the 
superficial  expression  of  Roman  power  in  the  Germanic 
world  will  be  greatly  modified  on  careful  analysis. 
One-third  of  the  Catholic  population  of  the  German 
Empire  is  not  German  at  all ;  and  the  great  majority 
of  its  Catholic  inhabitants  lie  below  a  very  modest 
line  of  cultivation.  Annexation  of  territory  and  mi- 
gration will  seriously  alter  the  superficial  complexion 
of  the  statistics.  The  varying  rate  of  increase  of 
Catholic  and  Protestant  populations  will  bring  a  fresh 
element  of  importance  into  the  analysis,  and  it  will 
have  to  be  considered  whether  this  variation,  which 
at  present  enormously  favours  the  Catholic,  is  likely 
to  continue.  Finally,  we  shall  have  to  apply  our  usual 
severer  tests  to  the  census  statistics  that  are  so  lightly 
accepted  and  that  we  have  found  almost  everywhere 
to  be  utterly  unreliable. 

When  the  situation  of  Catholicism  is  examined  in 
these  lights  it  will  be  found  to  be,  even  in  the  German 
Empire,  very  different  from  what  it  is  usually  sup- 
posed to  be.     An  English  priest  wrote  recently  : 

"A  glance  at  the  various  fortunes  of  Catholics  on 


198     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

the  Continent  should  be  enough  to  dispel  any  suspicion 
of  exaggeration  in  the  words  we  have  just  quoted. 
French  Catholics  neglected  the  Press  (?)  and  French 
Catholics  have  been  swept  off  their  feet  by  the  rising 
tide  of  Secularism.  It  is  absurd  to  imagine  that  the 
present  government  in  France  has  to  deal  with  a 
majority  or  even  a  well-organised  and  substantial  min- 
ority of  practical  Catholics.  The  bulk  of  the  people 
simply  do  not  care  about  religion.  .  .  .  The  Catholics 
of  Germany,  on  the  other  hand,  are  a  very  consider- 
able power  in  the  country.  They  are  thoroughly  well 
organised,  they  have  their  religion  at  heart,  and  they 
bring  it  to  bear  upon  the  world  about  them.  In  spite 
of  severe  persecution  and  overwhelming  difficulties 
they  have  drilled  themselves  into  an  invincible  army."  l 

The  contrast  between  the  fortunes  of  the  Vatican 
in  France  and  in  Germany  is  very  just,  but  the  writer 
somewhat  exaggerates  the  power  and  solidity  of 
German  Catholicism.  Its  numerical  strength  is  easily 
understood  when  one  glances  at  the  history  of  the 
empire,  and  its  remarkable  political  position  is  due 
more  to  the  peculiar  political  conditions  of  Germany 
than  to  its  absolute  strength,  and  is  already  seriously 
threatened.  In  Austria  the  Catholic  position  has 
even  less  solidity.  We  shall  find,  in  fact,  that  the 
Germanic  branches  of  the  Church  of  Rome  are  affected, 
like  all  the  others,  by  the  process  of  decay. 


THE    GERMAN    EMPIRE 

If  there  be  one  national  group  that  will  dominate, 
or  peculiarly  affect,  the  policy  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  in  the  day  of  its  coming  reform,  it  will  assuredly 

1  Month,  March  1908,  p.  230. 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  199 

be  the  group  of  German  prelates  and  their  followers. 
We  saw  that  the  Latin  countries  have  forfeited  their 
right  to  predominance.  The  Tsung-li-Yamen  of 
Italian  cardinals  that  still  surrounds  the  Pope  cannot 
much  longer  retain  its  privileged  position,  in  view  of  the 
rapid  secession  of  the  educated  Italians.  Spain  and 
France  are  themselves  too  shaken  in  their  loyalty  to 
hope  to  succeed  Italy.  The  whole  English-speaking 
world  contains  only  about  18,000,000  Roman  Catholics, 
and  they  are  weakened  by  decay  in  every  branch. 
But  the  German  Empire  reports  a  Catholic  population 
of  22,000,000,  with  a  fairly  steady  increase  and  a 
powerful  organisation.  If  Austria-Hungary  break 
up  in  the  course  of  the  next  decade  or  two,  and 
some  millions  of  Austrians  are  added  to  the  German 
Catholic  Church,  it  will  become  the  moral  centre  of 
Roman  Catholicism  and  have  a  significant  influence 
on  its  policy. 

Before,  however,  we  indulge  in  forecasts  of  this 
nature,  it  is  essential  to  understand  very  clearly  the 
position  of  the  Roman  Church  in  the  German  Empire. 
There  is  so  little  rigour  and  exactness  in  the  customary 
discussion  of  this  topic  that  one  is  not  surprised  to 
find  writers  claiming  that  the  Teutonic  world  is  well 
on  its  way  to  Canossa,  while  the  Latin  world  is 
passing  into  a  tardy  attitude  of  protest.  There  is 
as  little  ground  for  such  a  cry  as  there  was  for  the 
claim  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  world  was  returning  to 
its  old  religion.  The  Catholic  population  of  the 
English-speaking  world  does  not  include  1,000,000 
Anglo-Saxons  in  the  whole  18,000,000.  They 
are  nearly  all  of  Irish,  German  or  French  descent. 
We  shall  not  indeed  find  so  large  an  alien  element 
in  the  Teutonic  Church,  though  the  dispersal  of  the 
Poles  will  offer  some  analogy  to  the  dispersal  of 
the   Irish,  but  in  this  case  we  must   remember  that 


200     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

numbers  of  the  Germanic  states  either  never  accepted 
the  teaching  of  the  Reformers  or  were  at  once  won 
back  by  the  Jesuits. 

German  Catholicism  is  almost  entirely  a  matter 
of  geography,  history  and,  more  recently,  economic 
pressure.  Take  a  series  of  maps  of  the  part  of 
Europe  over  which  the  German  Empire  now  spreads. 
At  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when 
the  fierce  crusades  and  fiercer  wars  initiated  by  the 
Reformers  and  the  Jesuits  had  somewhat  relaxed,  we 
find  the  territory  occupied  by  a  motley  patchwork  of 
small  states,  free  cities,  bishoprics,  etc.,  with  the 
common  motto,  "  Cujus  regio,  illius  religio  " — "you 
must  think  as  your  rulers  think,  or  the  majority  think, 
about  religion  in  each  community."  Gradually  a  re- 
solute little  state  in  the  north-east  blurs  the  complex 
frontiers,  and  Austria,  in  its  alarm,  blurs  them  from 
the  south,  and  Napoleon  contemptuously  rubs  them 
out  from  the  west,  and  the  Council  of  Vienna  further 
alters  them.  But  the  blue  patches  of  Catholicism 
and  the  pink  patches  of  Protestantism  remain,  how- 
ever the  political  frontiers  change.  Ambitious  Prussia 
spreads  steadily  to  east  and  west  and  south,  taking 
in  the  blue  and  the  pink  impartially  ;  but  they  remain 
blue  and  pink.  If  you  take  a  map  of  the  German 
Empire  to-day,  and  colour  it  according  to  the  religious 
census,  you  will  almost  have  a  map  of  the  territory  as 
it  was  divided  300  years  ago.  The  only  difference 
is  that  the  removal  of  feudal  restrictions  on  the 
movements  of  the  workers  has  led  to  a  flow  of 
the  industrial  population  which  has  altered  the  shade 
of  many  of  the  districts.  Germany  is  largely  Catholic 
because  it  has  taken  in  a  large  slice  of  Catholic 
Poland,  a  large  slice  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire, 
a  slice  of  Catholic  France  and  a  large  number  of 
the  ecclesiastical   principalities  that  were  secularised 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  201 

by  Napoleon.  It  is  predominantly  Protestant  because 
the  larger  states  in  it — Brandenburg,  Prussia,  Saxony, 
Schleswig,  Holstein,  Hesse,  etc. — were  converted  by 
the  Reformers,  and  were  strong  enough,  or  sufficiently 
remote  from  Vienna  and  near  to  Sweden,  to  retain 
their  faith.  And  the  building  of  all  these  elements 
into  the  structure  of  the  empire  has,  incidentally, 
drawn  together  their  religious  forces  into  a  powerful 
and  well-organised  Church. 

Little  more  than  600  years  ago  the  Prussians  were 
an  obscure  and  despised  tribe  of  pagans  by  the  shore 
of  the  Baltic.  They  were  converted  by  the  swords 
of  the  Teutonic  knights,  and  made  into  a  duchy  for 
the  Grand  Master.  In  1525  the  Grand  Master  found 
it  convenient  to  turn  Protestant,  and  the  Prussians 
had  to  submit  to  another  change  of  faith.  In  161 8 
the  duchy  was  added  to  Brandenburg,  which  was 
already  Protestant,  and  the  work  of  expansion  began. 
The  Holy  Roman  Emperor  (Leopold)  allowed  it  to 
set  up  a  kingship  in  1701,  and  Frederick  the  Great 
added  Polish  (or  West)  Prussia  to  the  kingdom,  and 
thus  brought  a  large  Catholic  element  into  it.  "  Let 
every  man  go  to  heaven  his  own  way,"  the  sceptical 
ruler  decreed,  and  friction  was  avoided.  How  further 
large  slices  of  Poland  were  annexed,  and  Napoleon 
came  at  length  to  tear  up  the  map  of  Germany,  and 
make  a  fresh  one,  does  not  concern  us.  It  will  be 
enough  for  us  to  start  with  Prussia  after  the  Council 
of  Vienna  in  18 15,  and  trace  the  fortune  of  the 
Catholics  within  its  frontiers  since  that  date. 

The  powers  who  rearranged  the  map  of  Europe 
after  the  fall  of  Napoleon  granted  the  King  of  Prussia 
a  large  share  of  Eastern  Poland  (Posen),  half  of 
Saxony,  Pomerania,  Westphalia  and  a  long  stretch 
of  territory  on  the  Rhine  (the  Rhine  Province).  In 
almost  every  case  the  annexed  territory  added  very 


202  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

considerably  to  the  Catholic  population.  The  Poles 
were  overwhelmingly  Catholic ;  the  Rhinelanders  had 
lived  under  the  shadow  of  the  great  archbishop-princes 
of  Mayence,  Treves  and  Cologne  for  ages,  and  their 
whole  district  had  been  known  as  "  the  street  of 
priests."  In  1740  the  Catholic  population  of  Prussia 
was  166,000:  in  18 16  it  was  nearly  4,000,000  (to 
6,250,000  million  Protestants).  At  one  stroke  of  the 
pen,  without  a  single  citizen  changing  his  religion,  the 
Catholic  population  rose  to  39  per  cent,  of  the  whole. 
Here  we  have  at  once  the  explanation  of  the  later 
sectarian  percentage  and  the  germ  of  conflict.  We 
have  also  an  excellent  means  of  testing  the  question 
of  Catholic  growth,  and  we  shall  find  that  there  has 
been  a  notable  decrease  of  Catholicism  in  this  territory 
instead  of  an  increase.  But  I  will  first  conclude  this 
slight  sketch  of  the  formation  of  the  German  Church. 
At  first  the  Prussian  government  wisely  recognised 
the  great  change  in  the  religious  complexion  of  the 
country.  The  famous  historian  Niebuhr  was  appointed 
ambassador  to  the  Vatican,  a  concordat  was  drawn 
up,  and  a  hierarchy  established.  The  Church  made 
slow  progress.  The  restored  monarchs  everywhere 
were  eager  to  foster  religion  in  the  mass  of  the  people, 
as  a  protection  to  power  and  property,  and  the 
Romantic  period  of  German  literature  had  sent  some 
notable  converts  to  the  Catholic  Church — such  as 
Frederick  Schlegel,  Princess  Gallitzin,  Count  Stolberg, 
Brentano  and  others.  These  and  other  writers 
(Dollinger,  Goerres,  Moehler,  etc.)  put  new  life  into 
the  small  literate  proportion  of  the  Catholics,  and  here 
and  there  a  fairly  wide  revival  was  witnessed.  Rome, 
however,  looked  with  some  concern  on  the  growthof  the 
new  Church.  The  Vatican  could  overlook  the  apathy, 
the  ignorance,  and  the  looseness  of  life  that  remained 
from    the   days    of  sceptical    and    licentious   prelate- 


THE   GERMAN    EMPIRE  203 

princes.  The  difficulty  was  that  the  new  Church  was 
not  sufficiently  Roman,  and  admitted  too  much  semi- 
Rationalism.  The  spirit  of  Febronius  (a  powerful 
Catholic  opponent  of  Roman  claims  in  the  preceding 
century)  was  very  active  still. 

This  opposition  to  Ultramontane  ideas  was  very 
acceptable  to  the  Prussian  government,  and  when  the 
Jesuits  and  other  Ultramontanes  began  to  oppose  it 
with  their  customary  vehemence  trouble  became  in- 
evitable. It  was  in  the  early  thirties  that  the  long 
conflict  of  the  Roman  Catholics  with  the  Prussian 
government  broke  out.  Frederick  William  III.  had, 
with  Prussian  military  instinct,  forced  the  Lutherans 
and  Calvinists  to  join  in  a  common  "  Evangelical 
Church."  He  seems  to  have  had  some  notion  of  in- 
ducing the  Catholics  to  join  in  the  course  of  time. 
The  soldiers  in  the  barracks  were  ordered  to  attend  a 
common  service  periodically,  and  paternal  regulations 
were  imposed  as  to  the  religion  of  the  children  issuing 
from  mixed  marriages.  Rome,  of  course,  deeply 
resented  both  measures.  When,  in  1837,  an  ardent 
Ultramontane  (Droste-Vischering)  was  somehow 
promoted  to  the  archbishopric  of  Cologne,  in  spite 
of  the  vigilance  of  the  bureaucrats,  and  at  once  defied 
the  government  and  flouted  its  laws,  the  war  began. 
The  archbishop  was  thrown  into  prison,  and  the  fiery 
cross  sped  throughout  Catholic  Prussia,  from  the 
Rhine  to  Poland. 

The  statesmen  of  Prussia  had  made  a  great  blunder 
(from  the  religious  point  of  view)  in  annexing  or 
accepting  territory  without  regard  to  the  religion  of 
the  inhabitants.  They  made  a  still  greater  blunder 
in  their  attempts  to  interfere  with  that  religion.  The 
first  blunder  provided  the  material  for  the  most  power- 
ful Catholic  Church  of  modern  times.  The  second 
blunder  infused  a  spirit  into  that  Church  which  drove 


204     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

it  closer  to  Rome,  and  moved  it  to  create  a  remarkable 
organisation  and  press.  Nearly  every  phase  of  that 
prolonged  conflict  has  ended  in  the  retreat  of  the 
Protestant  rulers  and  the  strengthening  of  the  Catholic 
minority. 

Early  in  the  forties  the  government  gracefully 
retired  from  the  conflict,  and  appointed  a  Catholic 
section  of  the  ministry  of  worship.  By  that  time  the 
Catholics  of  Prussia  numbered  nearly  5,500,000,  to 
nearly  9,000,000  Protestants.  Their  percentage  had 
fallen,  but  the  new  spirit  and  organisation  largely 
arrested  the  leakage.  In  1844  a  fresh  agitation  swept 
through  the  whole  German  Catholic  world.  The 
"  Holy  Coat,"  the  "seamless  garment  of  Christ,"  was 
being  exhibited  at  Treves,  and  vast  pilgrimages  made 
their  way  thither.  A  Silesian  priest,  Ronge,  and  a 
Polish  priest,  Czerski,  led  schismatic  protests  against 
the  superstition  displayed  and  the  Roman  encourage- 
ment of  it,  and  their  "  German  Catholic  Church  "  soon 
had  60,000  followers.  In  spite  of  official  encourage- 
ment, however,  its  growth  was  arrested,  and  the  Roman 
Church  still  advanced.  The  revolutionary  movement 
of  1848  gave  it  the  first  impetus  to  the  extensive 
social  work  with  which  it  was  to  hold  its  ground 
against  Socialism  in  later  years.  At  that  time,  too, 
orators  like  Ketteler  and  Reichensperger  began  to 
inflame  it,  and  it  began  to  hold  national  congresses. 

During  all  this  time,  in  spite  of  the  repeated  stirrings 
of  the  Catholic  body,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  Catholics  were  multiplying  more  rapidly  than  the 
Protestants,  the  Church  was  really  losing  ground 
in  Prussia.  Its  percentage  fell  from  39  per  cent,  in 
18 16  to  37  per  cent,  in  1849.  Taking  the  provinces 
where  the  multiplication  of  population  was  greatest, 
and  the  number  of  Catholics  largest,  we  find  this 
remarkable  result  :  in  Posen  the  Catholic  percentage 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  205 

fell  from  65*23  in  1817  1063*42  in  1843,  in  Westphalia 
from  59*43  to  56*09,  and  in  the  Rhine  Province  from 
76*35  to  75*22.  Yet  we  shall  see  that  in  each  of 
these  provinces  the  percentage  of  Catholic  births 
was  far  above  the  Protestant  average.1 

If  we  take  account  of  the  actual  fall  in  percentage, 
the  number  of  Catholics  in  each  of  these  provinces, 
and  the  ratio  of  Catholic  multiplication,  we  find  that 
the  Church  must  have  lost  several  hundred  thousand 
followers  between  1815  and  1850.  I  will  return  to  the 
point  presently. 

In  1 86 1  William  I.  became  king,  and  the  reign  of 
Bismarck  opened.  There  is  no  proof  whatever  that 
Bismarck  had  more  than  a  political  concern  about  the 
growth  of  Catholicism,  or  that  he  meditated  any  coer- 
cive measures  at  all  until  the  Ultramontanes  tried  to 
embroil  Germany  with  Italy  over  the  Pope's  temporal 
power.  Catholic  rhetoric  on  the  point  defeats  itself 
with  its  reckless  allusions  to  Masonic  pressure  and 
other  quite  superfluous  agencies.  Indeed,  while  most 
Catholic  writers  attribute  the  Kulturkampf  to  the 
dark  machinations  of  Bismarck,  a  few  have  pointed 
out  that  it  began  in  Catholic  Bavaria,  and  was  initiated 
by  a  Catholic  minister,  with  the  assent  of  Catholic 
colleagues  and  a  Catholic  ruler. 

Before  it  broke  out,  however,  the  German  Empire 
was  formed,  and  the  Church  rounded  to  its  present 
proportions.  The  annexation  of  Hohenzollern  (94 
per  cent.  Catholic)    had  slightly  raised  the  Catholic 

1  I  take  the  figures  from  Father  Krose,  SJ.  {Konfesszons- 
statistik  Deutschlands,  1904),  from  whom  most  of  my  earlier  figures 
are  taken.  I  have  compared  his  work  throughout  with  that  of 
the  Protestant  Pastor  Pieper  {Kirchliche  Statistik  Deutschlands — 
a  rival  production),  and  in  regard  to  the  figures  after  1870  I  have 
consulted  the  official  publications.  Father  Krose  freely  acknowledges 
a  heavy  loss  from  1816  to  1870,  but  claims  later  moderation  of  it, 
which,  I  fear,  we  shall  not  be  able  to  allow. 


206     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

percentage,  but  the  annexations  of  1866  more  than 
restored  the  balance  in  favour  of  the  Protestants.  The 
last  struggle  with  Austria  for  supremacy  had  ended 
in  the  triumph  of  Prussia ;  and  Schleswig,  Holstein, 
Hanover,  Hesse-Cassel,  Hesse-Nassau  and  Frank- 
fort were  added  to  the  kingdom.  These  territories 
added  3,500,000  members  to  the  Evangelical  Church 
and  only  500,000  to  the  Roman  Catholic.  The  south 
German  states — Bavaria,  Baden,  Wurtemberg  and 
Saxony — formed  an  alliance  with  the  northern,  and 
the  ground  was  prepared  for  the  completion  of  Bis- 
marck's plan.  This  was  done  after  the  Franco-German 
War,  when  the  southern  states,  with  Alsace-Lorraine, 
entered  the  imperial  structure. 

The  territorial  changes  again  made  a  considerable 
change   in   the   sectarian  balance.     In  1867   Prussia 
contained      14,000,000    Protestants     and     7,000,000 
Catholics.      In    1871   the  German    Empire   included 
25,500,000  Protestants  and  (with  Alsace  and  Lorraine) 
15,000,000   Catholics.       Had    the   strongly    national 
spirit  of  the  earlier  German  Catholics  prevailed  over 
the  Ultramontanes  the  readjustment  would  have  been 
made  without  disturbance,  but  two  things  now  occurred 
that  inspired  the  anti-papals  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
Ultramontanes  on  the  other  with  a  new  and  somewhat 
menacing  life.     The  Vatican  Council  decreed  the  in- 
fallibility of  the  Pope,  and  the  Italian  army  occupied 
Rome.     Bismarck's  pleasant  dreams  on  the  slopes  of 
Versailles  were  rudely  interrupted  by  the  movements 
of  the  Catholics.     Not  only  was  the  Italian  ruler  of 
the  Church  constituted  a  perfect  autocrat,  and  relieved 
of  such  check  on  his  action  as  an  oecumenical  council 
provided,    but    German    Catholics    were   clamouring 
loudly   for   the    restoration    of    the  Pope's  temporal 
power  by — in  the  long  run — German  troops.    Further 
— and  this   was  probably  of  greater  weight — it   was 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  207 

notorious  that  Catholics  were  drawing  a  parallel 
between  the  act  of  Victor  Emmanuel  and  the  act  of 
William  I.  The  "revolution  from  above,"  which 
dragged  Poles,  Hanoverians  and  Frenchmen  into 
the  German  Empire,  was  not  obscurely  denounced 
by  the  Catholic  orators.  Discontented  Poles  and  dis- 
contented Alsatians  formed  more  than  a  third  of  the 
Catholic  body,  and  they  fraternised  with  the  Hano- 
verian and  other  bitter  malcontents  of  the  empire. 
When  they  went  on  to  throw  all  their  energy  into 
political  organisation,  and  every  pulpit  rang  with  fiery 
rhetoric  during  the  first  elections  to  the  Reichstag, 
and  they  returned  a  formidable  body  of  sixty  members 
(the  Centre  party),  pressing  sectarian  and  papal 
interests  and  caring  little  about  Imperial  needs,  they 
were  promptly  dubbed  "  reichsfeindlich  "  (enemies  of 
the  empire),  and  a  coercive  policy  was  conceived. 

In  this  way  the  Catholics  drew  upon  themselves  the 
famous  Kulturkampf.  Virchow  and  other  progressives 
had  urged  it,  as  a  moral  campaign  against  Catholic 
medievalism,  a  few  years  before.  It  now  became  a 
political  necessity.  The  growth  of  the  Poles  was  a 
standing  problem  for  German  statesmen ;  and  now 
that  this  anti-national  element  was  to  be  linked  with 
the  disaffected  provinces  in  the  far  west,  and  by  a 
power  that  had  its  centre  in  a  foreign  land,  some 
degree  of  alarm  was  unavoidable.  The  German 
leader  of  the  party,  moreover,  Windthorst,  was  a 
Hanoverian,  and  stood  for  a  third  element  of  dis- 
content. 

The  desperate  struggle  that  ensued  between  the 
German  bureaucracy  and  the  Catholic  clergy  interests 
me  only  on  the  ground  that  it  effectively  welded  to- 
gether the  very  mixed  Catholic  groups  of  the  empire, 
and  did  more  than  any  other  cause  in  creating  the 
German  Catholic  Church  of  to-day  and  attaching  it  to 


208     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

the  Vatican.  As  I  said,  the  Kulturkampf  really  began 
in  Catholic  Bavaria.  The  Jesuits  had  fought  strenu- 
ously and  successfully  against  the  Reformers  for 
Bavaria,  and  it  remained  the  chief  centre  of  Catholic- 
ism in  the  northern  part  of  the  German  Roman 
Empire.  In  the  calm  that  followed  the  cessation  of 
the  religious  wars,  and  under  the  enervating  rule  of 
the  pre- Napoleonic  Catholic  princes  and  prelates,  its 
religion  steadily  degenerated,  and  we  shall  see  that 
throughout  the  nineteenth  century  it  has  suffered 
considerable  leakage.  Its  scholars,  too,  were  deeply 
tinged  with  the  Febronian,  anti-papal  spirit.  When, 
therefore,  the  Vatican  decree  on  the  infallibility  of  the 
Pope  was  issued,  the  professors  of  Munich  University 
protested  against  it,  and  the  Bavarian  minister  ol 
worship  forbade  the  clergy  to  promulgate  it  (August 
1870)  without  the  placetum  regium,  which  all  knew 
would  not  be  granted.  At  once  the  Ultramontanes 
were  in  arms.  The  bishops  published  the  Vatican 
decrees  and  excommunicated  all  professors  who  would 
not  submit  to  them.  Lutz,  the  Catholic  minister  of 
worship,  then  issued  a  stringent  prohibition  of  pulpit 
interference  in  political  matters,  and  the  religious  war 
began. 

But  Bavaria  now  passed  into  the  unity  of  the 
German  Empire,  and  the  struggle  was  carried  to  a 
larger  stage.  The  Catholics  of  Prussia  had  already 
decided  to  revive  their  political  group,  which  had 
dwindled  away  in  1866,  and  had  secured  a  large  body 
of  representatives  at  the  Landtag  elections  in  October 
(1870).  When  the  first  elections  for  the  Reichstag 
(the  Imperial,  as  distinct  from  the  Prussian,  Parliament) 
came  on,  early  in  187 1,  the  agitation  spread  over 
Germany,  and  the  Centre  party  (sitting,  both  morally 
and  physically,  in  the  centre  of  the  conflicting  parties) 
made  its  fateful  appearance.     Had  there  been  a  simple 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  209 

two-party  system  in  Germany,  the  Centre  could 
merely  have  used  its  weight  as  the  Irish  party  has 
done  at  Westminster.  But  the  multiplicity  of  German 
parties  gave,  and  gives,  an  artificial  influence  to  the 
representatives  of  a  third  of  the  empire.  Indeed,  they 
stood,  not  merely  for  a  religious  issue  on  which  they 
were  united,  but  for  all  the  anti- Prussian  elements  in 
the  empire. 

In  the  struggle  that  followed,    Bismarck's  "blood 
and  iron  "  methods  proved  worse  than  futile.     Whether 
the  blood  of  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  converts  we  need 
not  stop   to  consider ;    but  any  less  drastic  form  of 
persecution  generally  fails.     The  imprisonment  of  the 
clergy  is  an   excellent  means  of  inflaming  the  laity, 
because  they  can  vent  their  indignation  with  safety. 
At  all  events  the  only  issue  of  this  inglorious  campaign 
of  Bismarck's  was   to   strengthen  the  Church.     His 
first  move  was  to  suppress  the    Catholic  section   of 
the  ministry  of  worship,  and  to  attempt  a  further  con- 
trol of  the  schools.     In  1872  the  Jesuits  were  expelled. 
In  1873  tne  famous  May  Laws  were  introduced  by 
Falk.     One  law  appointed  penalties  for  all  clerics  who 
should  make  an  improper  use  of  ecclesiastical  sentences 
(excommunication,   etc.) ;    another  laid  down  a   pro- 
cedure to  be  followed  when  a  man  wished  to  change 
his  creed  ;  a  third  set  up  a  special  court  for  clerical 
offenders  ;  and  a  fourth — the  worst  and  most  futile  of 
all — enacted  that  any  candidate  for  clerical  office  must 
be  a  German,  educated  in  a  German  gymnasium  and 
university,  and  must  pass  a  government  examination. 
In  the  following  year  civil  marriage  was  made  obliga- 
tory by  a  large  majority  of  the  Reichstag. 

It  was  only  a  few  years  since  Austrian,  Papal  and 
Spanish  rulers  had  treated  Liberals  with  a  far  more 
terrible  procedure,  and  indeed  a  large  meeting  held 
at   London,  with    Lord   Russell   in  the  chair,  sent  a 


210  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

message  of  support  to  the  German  Liberals.  But  the 
rhetoric  of  the  Catholic  orators  may  well  be  imagined 
when  these  laws  were  enforced,  their  bishops  were 
imprisoned,  and  hundreds  of  their  chapels  were  closed. 
Bismarck  may  have  wrongly  counted  on  the  schismatic 
Old  Catholic  party,  which  the  protests  of  Dollinger 
and  other  opponents  of  infallibility  had  created.  But 
it  never  became  a  powerful  body,  while  the  orthodox 
millions  were  now  organised  for  the  most  stubborn  of 
conflicts.  A  hundred  Catholic  journals  appeared  where 
there  had  been  only  six  a  few  years  before,  and  every 
priest  was  turned  into  a  fierce  politician.  Numbers 
of  the  clergy  entered  the  Reichstag,  and  social  and 
political  unions,  philanthropic  agencies,  congresses 
and  every  device  of  agitation  and  organisation  were 
employed.  The  struggle  braced  and  knit  the  frame 
of  the  German  Church  as  none  of  its  own  spiritual 
tonics  could  have  done.  Bismarck  was  beaten,  and 
the  Roman  Church  of  Germany  became  what  it  is. 
The  elections  of  1874  doubled  the  Catholic  vote,  and 
increased  the  Centre  party  to  ninety-one. 

It  is  essential,  for  the  understanding  of  the  Catholic 
position  to-day  to  note  the  real  causes  of  the  cessation 
of  hostilities.  The  combat  was  bound  to  end  in  a 
Catholic  victory,  but  an  entirely  new  element  came 
into  the  life  of  Germany  that  hastened  the  end.  The 
teaching  of  Karl  Marx  and  Lasalle  was  now  spreading 
rapidly  among  the  workers,  and  the  spectre  of  Social 
Democracy  was  beginning  to  alarm  all  parties.  In 
1878  there  were  several  attempts  on  the  life  of  the 
emperor,  and  they  were  loosely  attributed  to  the 
Socialists.  The  emperor  impulsively  observed  to 
Falk  that  "  if  he  would  leave  the  workers  their  religion 
these  things  would  not  happen."  Falk  took  the 
hint,  and  resigned.  In  the  same  year  Pius  IX.  made 
way  for  Leo  XIII.,  who  was  known  to  be  anxious  for 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  211 

peace.  Bismarck  quickly  perceived  the  more  serious 
menace  of  the  new  force  in  the  Reichstag.  He  could 
not  be  unaware  that  the  Catholic  Church  was  pledged 
to  an  uncompromising  war  against  it,  and  the  situation 
slowly  changed.  In  1880  a  Bill  was  introduced  giving 
the  crown  discretionary  power  in  the  application  of  the 
laws.  The  Centre  party  still  further  increased  in  1881 
(to  ninety -eight),  and  a  fresh  Bill  enlarged  the  measure 
of  relief.  An  envoy  was  sent  to  the  Vatican,  the  bishops 
returned  to  their  sees,  and  in  1886  the  odious  restric- 
tions on  the  training  and  activity  of  the  clergy  were 
removed.  Its  enmity  to  Social  Democracy  had  turned 
the  reichsfeindliche  Church  into  the  most  powerful 
ally  of  the  bureaucracy. 

This  brief  sketch  of  the  making  of  the  Roman 
Church  in  Germany  will  enable  the  reader  to  under- 
stand its  present  strength  and  reject  the  fallacious 
explanations  that  are  sometimes  given.  Growth  there 
has  been  on  a  scale  that  no  other  branch  of  the 
Catholic  Church  has  shown — an  increase  from  the 
9,091,500  Catholics  (in  the  whole  of  the  actual  German 
territory)  of  the  year  1822  to  the  20,000,000  of  the 
year  1900;  from  the  60  members  of  the  Reichstag  in 
1 87 1  to  the  103  members  of  to-day  (more  than  the 
Liberals  and  Socialists  together)  ;  from  the  6  Catholic 
journals  of  the  sixties  to  the  330  of  to-day  ;  from  the 
apathy  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  to  the  vast 
organisation  and  intense  activity  of  the  twentieth 
century.  In  view  of  such  an  advance  it  would  seem 
that  here  we  must  refrain  from  speaking  of  "decay." 
There  seems,  rather,  to  be  sober  ground  for  the 
expectation  of  a  Catholic  recovery. 

The  second  part  of  our  examination  will  show  that 
the  Catholic  Church  of  Germany  has  really  suffered 
considerable  losses.  It  has  made  relatively  few 
converts  from  Protestantism,  while  very  large  numbers 


212     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

of  its  own  followers  have  abandoned  their  allegiance. 
The  impolitic  action  of  its  opponents  has  hardened  and 
strengthened  it,  but  it  has  by  no  means  held  its  ground, 
or  made  new  ground,  in  the  course  of  the  past  century. 

I  have  already  mentioned  that  the  Catholic  popula- 
tion tends  to  multiply  more  quickly  than  the  non- 
Catholic.  The  reasons  for  this  I  have  earlier  indicated, 
and  in  the  case  of  Germany  we  have  exact  statistics 
that  put  it  beyond  cavil.  It  will  be  enough  to  quote 
the  Jesuit  Father  Krose  (Konfessions-statistik  Deut- 
schlands),  and  one  or  two  other  statistical  writers. 
Father  Krose  examines  the  data  and  conclusions  of 
the  official  Prussian  statistician  Von  Fircks,  and  agrees 
that,  while  there  are  5047  children  to  every  1000 
Catholic  marriages  (on  data  extending  from  T876  to 
1895),  there  are  only  4147  children  to  the  same 
number  of  Protestant  marriages,  and  3845  Jewish. 
Taking  the  number  of  survivals  over  deaths,  he  finds 
that,  for  every  1,000,000  people,  the  Protestants  have 
an  annual  increase  of  11,227  and  the  Catholics  14,102. 
This  means  a  Catholic  excess  of  2875  a  vear  (Per 
1,000,000  people)  on  the  natural  increase. 

Pastor  Pieper  (Kircklicke  Statistik  Deutschlands) 
agrees  as  to  the  Catholic  excess  of  2875  per  year 
per  1,000,000  people.  Juraschek  ("Die  Staaten 
Europas  ")  gives  concordant  figures,  and  shows  that  the 
Protestant  birth-rate  still  diminishes.  The  official 
tables  in  the  Statistisches  Jahrbuch  fiir  das  Deutsche 
Reich  (1907)  show  it  at  a  glance.  The  average  in- 
crease of  population  for  the  empire  between  1895  and 
1905  was  13*2  per  cent.  In  Westphalia  it  was  22^4 
per  cent.;  in  the  Rhine  Province  177  ;  in  Posen  17*5. 
These  are  the  great  Catholic  provinces.  In  almost 
every  state  the  percentage  differs  with  the  religious 
percentage.  A  further  table  of  excess  of  births  over 
deaths  show  just  the  same  result.      In  East  Prussia 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE 


213 


(13  per  cent.  Catholic)  the  excess  was  only  106  per 
cent. ;  in  West  Prussia  (5 1  •  1 9  per  cent.  Catholic)  the  ex- 
cess was  15-9.  Another  table  shows  the  increase  of 
population  between  1871  and  1905.  For  the  whole 
empire  it  is  477  ;  for  Westphalia  it  is  103*8  ;  for  the 
Rhine  Province  79'8. 

There  is,  therefore,  no  doubt  that  the  Catholic 
increase  by  births  over  the  Protestant  is  2875  a  year 
per  1,000,000  people.  Now  there  were,  in  the  year 
1820,  9,000,000  Catholics  in  the  present  territory 
occupied  by  the  German  Empire,  and  there  were 
22,000,000  in  1905.  The  reader  will  see  that  this 
means  an  annual  Catholic  excess  beginning  at  26,000 
and  rising  to  63,000,  or  a  total  of  about  3,000,000. 
This  should  be  the  proportional  gain  of  the  Catholics 
over  the  Protestants  since  1816.  In  point  of  fact  they 
show  no  such  gain.  Indeed,  the  following  table  will 
show  at  a  glance  that  they  have  absolutely  lost  ground, 
for  all  the  imposing  growth  of  their  Church  : — ' 


Protestants 
Catholics 


Number  in 
the  Year  1822 


16,193,000 
9,091,500 


Percent,  of 
Population 


639 
35'42 


Number 

in 

1905 


37,255,785 
20,707,158 


Percent,  of 
Population 


65-0 

35"21 


1  This  table  does  not  include  Alsace-Lorraine,  for  which  the 
figures  are  not  available  at  the  earlier  date.  But  the  Catholics  have 
notoriously  not  increased  as  much  as  the  Protestants  in  Alsace- 
Lorraine.  The  figures  and  percentages  for  1822  are  from  Father 
Krose.  The  total  population  of  German  territory  was  then 
25,668,420.  The  figures  for  1905  are  from  the  Statistisches  Jahrbuch. 
For  the  making  of  a  fair  comparison  I  have  omitted  the  population 
of  Alsace-Lorraine.  The  loss  in  recent  decades  may  be  estimated 
very  confidently  by  a  different  procedure.     According  to  the  results 


214     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Nothing  could  show  more  clearly  that  the  Catholic 
Church  of  Germany  has  merely  covered  very  con- 
siderable losses  by  the  accession  of  millions  of  alien 
Catholics.  Father  Krose  admits  that  the  greater  fer- 
tility of  the  Catholic  communities  ought  to  raise  the 
Catholic  percentage  one  unit  per  decade  for  the  whole 
empire.  It  should,  therefore,  stand  at  something  over 
forty  to-day,  even  making  allowance  for  a  slighter 
excess  in  the  earlier  decades.  In  point  of  fact,  it  is 
— excluding  Alsace-Lorraine — less  than  it  was  eighty 
years  ago :  even  including  Alsace-Lorraine  it  is  only 
36*1  (Statistisches  Jahrbucti).  When  we  remember 
the  absolute  size  of  the  figures  that  these  percentages 
represent — a  population  rising  from  25,000,000  to 
60,000,000 — we  see  that  it  means  a  Catholic  loss  of 
several  millions  in  the  course  of  the  eighty  years. 

Father  Krose  admits  a  heavy  loss,  but  is  consoled 
to  think  that  it  is  slighter  since  1871  than  it  was  be- 
fore. I  have  explained  that  the  Kulturkampf  proved 
a  bracing  experience  for  the  Church  after  that  date, 
and  gave  it  a  far  more  effective  organisation,  but  we 
must  examine  more  closely  whether  this  statement  is 
correct.  I  will  not  detain  the  reader  long  in  examining 
the  figures  before  1871.  The  figures  for  Prussia  at 
least  are  trustworthy  and  abundant,  and  they  show 
a  notable  leakage.  From  3,945,677  in  the  year  18 16 
(Poles  included)  the  Catholics  of  Prussia  slowly  in- 
creased to  8, 268, 1 69  in  1 87 1  (the  Protestants  increasing 
from  6,000,000  to  16,000,000.       This,  of  course,  does 

of  Von  Fircks,  which  are  accepted  by  Father  Krose,  the  annual 
increase  of  the  Prussian  Catholics  should  be  14,102  per  1,000,000 
people.  In  1871  they  numbered  8,268,169.  It  will  be  found  that 
on  natural  increase,  they  should  number  more  than  12,100,000 
in  1900;  with  the  excess  of  Catholic  immigrants  over  emigrants 
they  should  be  at  least  12,750,000.  But  the  actual  number  (or 
sensus  number,  which  we  shall  greatly  reduce)  was  only  12,500,000, 
chowing  a  loss  of  500,000  for  Prussia  alone  on  the  census  figures. 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  215 

not  indicate  mere  natural  growth,  but  takes  account 
of  the  annexations.  Father  Krose  gives  the  figure  of 
5,934,000  as  the  Catholic  population  in  1822  of  the 
whole  territory  which  is  now  Prussia.  Their  number, 
therefore,  is  less  than  doubled  in  fifty  years,  in  spite 
of  the  high  birth-rate  of  Posen,  Westphalia  and  the 
Rhine  district.  Their  percentage  has  been  dropping 
steadily  during  the  whole  period.  From  1851  to 
1857 — Pieper  shows — the  Protestants  increased  by 
72-5  per  cent,  and  the  Catholics  by  only  67*8.  And 
the  decrease  is  most  signal  in  the  Catholic  provinces. 
In  Posen  the  percentage  fell,  between  18 17  and  1858 
(Krose),  from  65*23  to  62*1 1  ;  in  Westphalia  from  59*43 
to  55*14;  in  the  Rhine  Province  from  76*35  to  7472. 

Nor  must  it  be  imagined  that  emigration  will  explain 
the  statistics  in  favour  of  the  Catholics.  I  may  say, 
once  for  all,  that  the  Catholics  have  profited  more 
than  the  Protestants  by  the  movement  of  population. 
We  have  no  exact  figures  before  187 1,  and  must  as- 
sume that  the  proportion  was  much  the  same  as  after 
that  date.  Now,  at  one  point  (1883- 1887),  we  get  a 
precise  determination  of  the  religion  of  the  emigrants 
from  Prussia,  which  we  owe  to  the  indefatigable 
labours  of  Von  Fircks.  Of  the  223,834  emigrants 
during  those  five  years  155,167  (or  66*46  per  cent.) 
were  Protestants,  and  68,667  (or  30*39  per  cent.) 
Catholics.  The  Protestants  lost  the  greater  number, 
in  proportion  to  their  greater  strength.  On  the  other 
hand,  immigration  also  has  favoured  the  Catholics. 
Of  non-German  immigrants  during  1883-1887  no 
less  than  53  per  cent,  were  Catholics.  Father  Krose 
rightly  observes  :  "  We  must  conclude  that  not  only 
emigration,  but  also  immigration,  has  tended  to  alter 
the  sectarian  percentage  in  Prussia  in  favour  of  the 
Catholics"  (p.   122). 

Prussia,  therefore,  shows  a  large  net  loss  to  Catholic- 


216     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

ism.  We  need  only  glance  further  at  one  or  two  of 
the  larger  states  before  1871.  Bavaria,  the  next 
chief  centre  of  Catholicism,  had  2,755,000  Catholics 
and  1,007,000  Protestants  in  1822.  In  1871  it  had 
3,464,364  Catholics  and  1,342,592  Protestants.  The 
Catholic  percentage  went  down  from  73  to  70. 
Wurtemberg  had  452,000  Catholics  in  1822  and 
519,913  in  1858:  the  Protestants  increased  in  the 
same  period  from  997,000  to  1,158,324.  Baden  had 
730,000  in  1822  and  942,560  in  1871.  All  these 
figures  tell  the  same  story  of  leakage  in  a  rapidly 
increasing  population. 

After  1 87 1  the  Catholic  percentage  ought  to  increase 
more  rapidly  than  ever.  The  discrepancy  in  the  birth- 
rate was  more  pronounced,  and  migration  notably 
favoured  the  Catholics — to  say  nothing  of  the  great 
social  and  political  organisation  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred. Now,  there  is  no  dispute  about  the  fact  that 
the  Catholics  continued  to  lose  heavily  until  1890. 
Father  Krose  gives  the  Catholic  percentage  for  the 
empire  as  sinking  from  36*21  in  1871  to  3576  in 
1890.  In  the  provinces,  where  the  Catholic  birth- 
rate was  highest,  the  decrease  was  most  pronounced. 
In  the  Rhine  Province  the  Catholic  percentage  fell 
from  73*43  to  69*02  :  in  Westphalia  from  53*47  to 
50*71.  Yet  in  these  provinces  the  excess  of  births 
over  deaths  (mainly  amongst  the  Catholics)  was  double 
the  average.  In  Posen  the  gain  in  percentage  was 
slight — not  nearly  as  great  as  it  ought  to  have  been. 
In  some  districts  there  was  a  considerable  rise  in  the 
Catholic  percentage,  but  these  are  precisely  the  dis- 
tricts where  they  are  very  few  in  number,  and  the 
increase  was  plainly  due  to  the  flocking  of  Catholic 
workers  to  new  industrial  centres,  largely  from  Bohemia 
and  other  Catholic  districts. 

Indeed,  the  whole  question  of  leakage  up  to  1890 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  217 

may  be  settled  by  a  few  figures  from  an  essay  by  the 
famous  statistician  Von  Fircks,1  for  the  period  from 
1 87 1  to  1890.  The  Catholic  percentage  for  the  whole 
of  the  empire  fell  from  36*21  to  3576.  It  ought,  as 
we  saw,  to  have  increased  by  2  per  cent.  In  Prussia 
the  percentage  rose  slightly  (33*5  to  34*2)  on  account 
of  industrial  movements ;  in  the  great  Catholic  pro- 
vinces of  Prussia  it  fell  considerably.  In  Bavaria  it 
fell  from  71*2  to  70*8  :  in  Baden  from  64*5  to  62*0:  in 
Wurtemberg  from  30*4  to  29*9  :  in  Alsace-Lorraine 
from  797  to  76*5.  Where  there  was  an  increase, 
it  was  plainly  due  to  immigration.  In  Saxony,  for 
instance,  which  is  overwhelmingly  Protestant,  it  was 
found  that  6075  of  the  foreigners  were  Catholics  ;  and 
there  were  also  175,000  Catholic  workers  from  other 
parts  of  the  empire.  "We  should  rather  be  astonished," 
says  Father  Krose,  "that  the  increase  was  not 
greater"  (p.  123).  When  we  recall  that  the  Catholics 
should  show  an  annual  increase  of  2800  per  1,000,000 
people  above  the  Protestants,  and  that  they  numbered 
from  15,000,000  to  17,000,000  during  this  period,  we 
see  that  it  means  a  loss  of  more  than  500,000  for  the 
twenty  years. 

Finally,  I  will  take  the  figures  for  1905  from  the 
Statistisches  Jahrbuch>  and  show  that  the  leakage 
continues.  In  1890  the  Catholic  percentage  was 
3576  for  the  whole  empire  ;  in  1905  it  was  36-4.  It 
ought  to  have  risen  to  about  37 '4.  In  the  Rhine 
Province  and  Westphalia  the  Catholic  percentage  has 
gone  down  still  lower,  and  in  Posen  it  is  about  station- 
ary. The  gains  for  Prussia  are  in  Brandenburg  and 
Silesia,  and  are  due  to  immigration.  In  Bavaria  it 
falls  to  70*6  ;  in  Baden  to  6o*o ;  in  Wurtemberg  it 
recovers  slightly  (299  to  30*2).  In  other  words,  the 
slight  increase  is  a  mere  fraction  of  what  it  ought  to 
1  "  Bevolkerungslehre,"  p.  66. 


218     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

have  been,  and  is,  says  Father  Krose,  "due  purely 
and  simply  to  an  increase  of  Catholic  immigrants." 
The  heavy  leakage  has  continued,  and  the  whole 
Catholic  advantage  of  excessive  birth-rate  (about 
600,000)  has  been  lost.  The  great  increase  in  Italians, 
Austrians,  Belgians  and  Catholic  Dutch  and  Russians, 
is  the  only  increase  discoverable,  beyond  a  normal 
multiplication  ;  while  the  Catholic  multiplication  should 
be  quite  abnormal. 

As  the  chief  cause  of  this  relative  fall  in  Catholic 
percentage — or  failure  to  rise,  if  one  prefers  to  put 
it  so,  but  a  failure  that  implies  the  loss  of  3,000,000 
followers  in  the  last  eighty  years — Catholic  writers 
indicate  mixed  marriages.  It  would  be  more  accurate, 
however,  to  regard  these  as  an  effect,  rather  than  a 
cause,  of  decay.  We  have  seen  that  the  law  of  the 
Church  in  regard  to  mixed  marriages  is  absolute. 
It  will  not  sanction  marriage  with  a  Protestant  unless 
a  formal  promise  is  made  to  the  priest  that  all  children 
of  the  marriage  shall  be  Catholic.  In  Germany, 
whatever  promise  is  made,  the  Catholic  Church  has, 
for  many  decades,  not  secured  even  one  half  of  the 
issue  of  mixed  marriages.  This  has  been  officially 
determined  in  Prussia  time  after  time.  Early  statistics 
of  the  year  1864  show  that  51  per  cent,  of  such 
children  at  that  time  were  Protestant ;  and  the 
percentage  has  steadily  increased.  In  1885  it  was 
54-4;  in  1890  it  was  55*0;  in  1895  it  was  557;  and 
in  1900  it  was  56*5.  In  other  states  the  loss  of  such 
children  to  the  Catholic  Church  is  still  greater.  In 
Catholic  Bavaria  the  Protestants  claim  to  baptise 
76*99  per  cent,  of  the  issue  of  mixed  marriages  ;  in 
Saxony  91*05  per  cent.  Only  in  Alsace-Lorraine  do 
the  Catholics  secure  a  half  of  the  children.  More- 
over, these  figures  only  relate  to  children  under 
sixteen,    who   live  with    their   parents.      The   school 


THE    GERMAN   EMPIRE  219 

years  take  off  a  further  proportion  of  the  Catholic 
children,  and  others  leave  later.  Pastor  Pieper 
claims  that  three-fourths  of  the  children  of  mixed 
marriages  become  Protestant :  Father  Krose  says 
three-fifths.  Even  if  we  accept  the  latter  figure — 
and  remember  that  in  any  given  year  there  are  about 
1,000,000  such  children  (under  sixteen)  in  Germany 
— we  have  here  an  enormous  leakage  from  the 
Church. 

In  such  circumstances  the  high  and  increasing 
number  of  mixed  marriages  betrays  a  serious  failure 
of  Catholic  authority.  There  were  in  1905  about 
485,000  marriages  in  the  empire,  and  42,000  of  these 
were  mixed.  For  many  years  now  about  one-eighth 
of  the  marrying  Catholics  have  chosen  Protestant 
partners,  and  more  than  half  their  children  have 
become  Protestants.  Amongst  the  Poles  alone  have 
the  clergy  any  influence  in  checking  this  disastrous 
practice.  In  Berlin,  Brandenburg,  Pomerania,  Silesia 
and  Saxony  Catholics  more  frequently  marry  Protest- 
ants than  Catholics.  In  Hamburg  in  1901  there  were 
73  Catholic  marriages  and  480  mixed.  In  one  place 
Father  Krose  finds  3  Catholic  marriages  and  81 
mixed;  in  another  13  mixed  marriages  and  not  one 
purely  Catholic.  In  Catholic  Bavaria,  between  1835 
and  1900,  the  proportion  of  mixed  marriages  has 
risen  from  2*81  to  9-91  per  cent.  In  Baden  the 
number  of  Catholic  marriages  sank  from  7306  to  7023 
between  1868  and  1900;  while  the  percentage  of 
mixed  marriages  rose  from  9*1  to  14*5.  Father 
Krose,  from  whom  I  take  the  figures,  admits  that  it 
means  a  loss  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  children.  It 
really  means  much  more.  It  plainly  intimates  that 
the  authority  of  the  Church  over  a  large  section  of 
the  nominal  Catholic  body  is  remarkably  enfeebled. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  last  point  of  our  inquiry 


220     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

into  the  condition  of  Catholicism  in  Germany.  We 
have  seen  that,  if  we  take  the  census  figures  of  the 
two  great  denominations  to  be  correct,  the  Protestant 
body  has  gained,  and  the  Catholic  body  lost,  about 
3,000,000  members  since  the  year  182 1.1  Our  glance 
at  the  high  proportion  of  mixed  marriages  and  their 
outcome  strongly  confirms  this.  But  we  have  found 
the  census  statistics  to  be  extremely  unreliable  in 
every  country,  and  will  hardly  expect  them  to  be 
more  reliable  in  the  case  of  Germany,  where  officials 
frown  on  any  qualification  other  than  Catholic, 
Evangelical  or  Jew. 

Unfortunately,  the  material  for  applying  the  most 
stringent  test  of  real  Catholicism  —  attendance  at 
mass  on  Sundays  —  is  entirely  lacking.  German 
writers  have  been  most  industrious  in  the  collecting 
and  analysis  of  census  figures,  but  the  more  proper 
test  seems  to  have  been  wholly  neglected.  We  shall 
see  when  we  come  to  examine  Catholicism  in  entirely 
similar  circumstances — in  German  Austria — that  the 
application  of  this  test  reduces  the  Catholic  total 
very  materially.  I  find  only  one  indication  of  this 
order  in  Germany,  and  it  shows  a  remarkable 
state  of  things.  This  is  an  indirect  indication  of 
churchgoing  in  Berlin.  Catholic  writers  have,  since 
the  last  two  census  reports,  commented  with  warmth 
on  the  increase  of  their  faith  in  Prussia  generally,  and 
Berlin  in  particular.  We  have  already  seen  that  the 
figures  for   Prussia  really  reveal    a   serious  loss,  and 

1  It  is  necessary  to  note  that  the  "  Catholic  "  total  in  the  census 
report  and  books  of  reference  includes  Old  Catholics  and  Oriental 
Catholics.  These,  however,  do  not  number  100,000,  and  may  be 
neglected.  I  have  also  neglected  the  figures  relating  to  the  formal 
migrations  of  adults  from  one  religion  to  the  other.  Between 
1890  and  1900  Protestant  pastors  reported  46,600  conversions 
from  Catholicism,  and  6820  secessions  to  Catholicism.  This 
expresses  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  leakage  from  Rome. 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  221 

the  situation  in  Berlin,  where  we  may  assume  es- 
pecially energy  and  resources  of  the  Catholic  body, 
is  more  lamentable  for  the  Church  than  in  any  other 
great  city  in  the  world. 

In  his  "  Kettler  et  l'organisation  sociale,"  the  Abbe 
Kannengieser,    an    ardent    admirer    of   the    German 
Church,  has  a  few  pages  on  the  condition  of  Catholic- 
ism  at    Berlin   in    1894.     He  says   that  there  were, 
for    the     135,000    Catholics    of    Berlin,    only     "two 
churches    and    ten    small    chapels "  —  one    place    of 
worship  to    11,000    worshippers!     At   London   there 
are  165  chapels  to  an  even  smaller  Catholic  popula- 
tion.      The    result,   Kannengieser   says    (p.    141),    is 
"that    Catholicism    loses   heart   at    Berlin.       Of  the 
54,000  married  Catholics  26,000  are  married  to  Pro- 
testants,  and  85   per  cent,   of  the  children  of  these 
marriages  pass  to  Protestantism.     In  the  schools  of 
Berlin  there  ought  to  be  65,000  children  more  than 
there  are."     But  this  is  only  a  half  perception  of  the 
truth.      Even   if  we    allowed   a   proportion    of   3000 
Catholics  to  each  chapel — and  the  proportion  is  only 
700  at  London — it  would  follow  that  100,000  of  the 
Berlin  Catholics  have  really  fallen  away.     I  turn  to 
a  recent  and  authoritative  work  on  Berlin    ("Berlin 
und  die    Berliner,"   1905),  which    purports  to  give  a 
complete  guide   to  the  institutions  of  the  city.       Its 
list  of  Catholic  chapels  includes  only  eight  (and  one 
Greek  Catholic),  but  we  may  assume  that  there  are 
four  other  semi-public  chapels,  to  agree  with  Kannen- 
gieser.    Now  the  census  of  1905  returned  the  number 
of  Catholics  at  Berlin  as  223,948.     That  is  one  of  the 
great  increases  in  percentage  of  which  the  Catholic 
writer   boasts.      But   how    even    twelve    chapels   can 
accommodate     200,000     worshippers    every    Sunday 
morning  I  leave  to  the  reader's  imagination.      Con- 
siderably more  than   150,000  must  be  struck  off  the 


222     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Catholic  census  total  for  Berlin  alone.  It  is  a  most 
illuminating  commentary  on  German  census  declara- 
tions of  religious  belief.1 

We  must  not,  of  course,  seek  to  apply  metropolitan 
conditions  to  the  rest  of  Germany,  but  it  is  clear  that 
in  the  larger  towns  of  the  Protestant  provinces  the 
situation  of  Catholicism  is  little  better.     The  fact  of 
Hamburg  showing  480  mixed  marriages  to  73  Catholic 
is  instructive  enough,  and  we  saw  that  there  are  many 
similar  cases.     The  Catholic  total  for  these  provinces 
must  be  shorn  of  an  enormous  proportion.     In  the 
Catholic  provinces  the  clerical  organisation  has  grown 
with  the  population,  yet  even  in  these  the  proportion 
of  priests  to  population  is  so  low  that  a  large  part  of 
the  latter  must  be  regarded  as  purely  nominal  adherents. 
In    1895  (the  last   year  for  which   I    have  complete 
figures)  there  was  in  the  German  Empire  one  secular 
priest  to  each  1030  Catholic  inhabitants.     The  figures 
for  the  various  dioceses,  in  1898  show  the  same  strik- 
ing disproportion.      In  the  Breslau  diocese,  there  were 
2162  nominal  Catholics  to  one  priest:   in  the   Prag 
diocese,   1883:    Posen  diocese,  1865:    Kulm  diocese, 
1803:  Gnesen  diocese,   1781  :  Olmiitz  diocese,  1648. 
It   is   true   that   the    Catholic   clergy    are   nearly   as 
numerous  as  the  Protestant,  though  their  followers  are 
little  more  than  half  as  numerous.     But  churchgoing 
is  very  lax  among  the  Protestants,  and  their  situation 
is  fundamentally  different  on  account  of  the  solemn 
Catholic  command    to   attend    mass.     Pastor   Pieper 
says  that  the  church  attendance  at  Evangelical  places 
of  worship  is  13  or  14  per  cent,  of  the  population. 
However,  in  the  absence  of  exact  figures,  I  will  do 

1  We  have  already  seen  the  condition  of  Catholicism  at  London 
and  Paris.  In  the  three  most  cultivated  cities  of  Europe,  with  a 
total  population  of  11,000,000  souls,  there  are  not  300,000  Roman 
Catholics. 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  223 

no  more  than  suggest  that  the  number  of  clergy  and 
chapels  points  to  a  large  proportion  of  merely  nominal 
Catholicism  in  the  census  figures. 

o 

A  better  test  of  the  reliability  of  the  census  figures 
is  found  in  the  marriage  statistics.  I  have  already 
pointed  out  that  the  percentage  of  Catholic  marriages 
is  one  of  the  safest  maximum  indications  of  their 
strength.  It  is  a  grave  sin  for  a  Catholic  to  be 
married  by  any  other  than  a  Catholic  priest :  in 
Catholic  lands  the  marriage  is  invalid.  I  need  not  go 
back  into  earlier  years,  but  will  take  the  marriages 
(from  the  Statistisches  Jahrbuck)  for  1905,  which  are 
in  no  wise  exceptional.  There  were  485,906  marriages 
throughout  the  empire.  Of  these  289,353  were 
Protestant  and  147,674  Catholic.  If  we  divide  the 
42,000  mixed  marriages  equally  between  them,  we 
find  that  of  the  total  marriages  only  34*5  per  cent, 
were  Catholic  and  64*3  Protestant.  As  the  Catholic 
percentage  of  the  population  is  supposed  to  be  3  5 '21 
we  have  here  a  clear  indication  that  the  census  figure 
is  worthless.  Nor  must  we  forget  that  the  percentage 
is  only  brought  up  to  34*5  by  including  21,000  mixed 
marriages,  which  are  so  disastrous  to  Catholicism. 
Deducting  these,  it  sinks  to  30*4.  I  have  already 
pointed  out  that  Catholic  marriages  in  Catholic  Baden 
are  now  less  than  they  were  forty  years  ago,  though 
the  total  number  of  marriages  has  greatly  increased. 
In  Alsace-Lorraine  the  number  has  dwindled  very 
appreciably.  In  Wurtemberg  the  proportion  of 
Catholic  marriages  sank  from  27*0  per  cent,  in  1872 
to  25*3  in  1896. 

Finally,  we  may  apply  a  test  to  German  Catholicism 
from  the  feature  which  is  its  most  distinctive  pride — 
its  political  organisation.  I  have  described  in  what 
circumstances  the  Centre  party  made  its  appearance 
in  the  Reichstag  in   1871,  and  how  the  multiplicity  of 


224  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

German  parties  has  given  it  a  factitious  influence. 
For  our  present  purpose  I  have  only  to  consider  the 
increase  in  the  Catholic  vote  since  1871.  In  that 
year — the  Catholic  organisation  being  yet  immature — 
the  Centre  deputies  secured  718,248  votes.  By  1874 
the  Kulturkampf  was  at  its  height,  and  the  Catholic 
vote  rose  to  1,438,792.  Its  fortune  in  the  six  elections 
between  1874  and  1884  is  given  succinctly  in  the 
Statistisches  Jahrbuch  for  1886:  it  fell  steadily  from 
27*9  per  cent,  of  the  total  vote  to  22*6.  In  the  towns 
it  fell  from  137  to  6*6  per  cent.  I  have  taken  the 
fio-ures  from  later  Jahrbucher,  and  worked  out  the 
percentages  for  all  of  the  subsequent  elections.  They 
are  as  follows  : — 


Reichstag 

Catholic 

Election 

Total  Vote 

Catholic  Vote 

Percentage  of 

in  Year 

Total  Vote 

1887 

7,540,900 

1,516,200 

20*I 

1890 

7,228,500 

1,342,100 

18-5 

1893 

7,674,000 

1,468,500 

191 

1898 

7,752,7°° 

1,45s.100 

187 

1903 

9,495,600 

1,875,300 

197 

1907 

11,262,800 

2,179,800 

193 

It  thus  turns  out  that  the  feature  which  lends  the 
chief  appearance  of  strength  to  German  Catholicism 
is  really  the  most  remarkable  proof  of  its  decay. 
From  the  high-water  mark  of  1874  the  Catholic  vote 
has,  with  slight  fluctuations,  sunk  by  8'6  of  its  per- 
centage of  the  whole.  While  the  total  vote  has  more 
than  doubled,  the  Catholic  vote  has  not  increased  by 
50  per  cent.  In  view  of  the  enormous  importance  to 
the  Catholic  body  of  maintaining  the  prestige  of  the 
Centre  party  this  result  must  be  regarded  as  significant 
in  the  highest  degree.  The  filling  of  a  vote  paper  is 
a  very  different  matter  in  point  of  sincerity  from  filling 


THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE  225 

a  census  paper.  As  in  Italy,  the  Socialist  party  is 
detaching  enormous  numbers  of  workers  from  the 
Church.  The  social  Democratic  vote  rose  from 
349,000  to  3,010,800,  while  the  Catholic  vote  increased 
by  less  than  50  per  cent.1 

With  all  its  millions  of  followers,  its  remarkably 
ample  press,  and  its  fine  organisation,  German 
Catholicism  has  to  admit  heavy  losses,  like  every 
other  branch  of  the  Roman  Church.  The  extent  of 
its  losses  can  be  roughly  measured  by  the  conclusions 
we  have  reached.  In  the  first  place,  the  census 
figures  themselves  reveal  a  loss  of  about  3,000,000 
followers  since  1821.2  The  enormous  Catholic  birth- 
rate should,  in  the  eighty  years,  have  given  the 
Church  an  advantage  of  about  3,000,000  over  the 
Protestants.  It  shows  no  such  advantage,  but  a 
general  loss ;  and  its  recent  slight  advance  in  the 
Protestant  province  of  Prussia  is  admittedly  due  to 
immigration. 

In  the  next  place,  we  have  found  that  the  census 
figures  give  a  greatly  exaggerated  idea  of  Catholicism, 
so  that  its  real  loss  must  be  very  much  larger.  At  the 
one  point  where  we  could  apply  a  reasonable  test  to  the 
census  figure — Berlin — we  found  it  to  be  exaggerated 
to  the  extent  of  nearly  200  percent.     The  vast  bulk 

1  It  is  most  misleading  to  judge  by  the  number  of  deputies.  A 
Socialist  deputy  in  the  Reichstag  to-day  represents  70,000  votes: 
a  Catholic  deputy  only  21,000.  The  Abbe  Kannengieser  explains 
that  the  German  Catholics  are  divided  and  violently  embroiled  on 
social  questions,  and  the  Socialists  are  pushing  their  cause  with 
great  energy  in  Catholic  provinces  ("  Ketteler  et  l'organisation 
sociale  "). 

2  Rudolf  Urba,  a  Catholic  Austrian,  says  (in  his  "Oesterreich's 
Bedranger")  that  Father  Krose  admits  a  loss  of  2,000,000;  and  it 
will  hardly  be  thought  that  these  Catholic  writers  are  unjust  to  their 
own  Church.  I  do  not  remember  seeing  the  statement  in  Krose, 
and  give  it  on  Urba's  authority.  My  own  figure  of  3,000,000  is  the 
result  of  a  minute  analysis. 


226     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

of  the  baptised  Catholics  of  Berlin  are  absolutely  lost. 
We  saw  reason  for  thinking  that  there  is  a  similar 
state  of  things  in  many  of  the  large  Protestant  cities  ; 
and  indeed  the  proportion  of  mixed  marriages,  in  face 
of  their  disastrous  effect  on  the  Catholic  body,  shows 
an  almost  general  failure  of  Catholic  authority. 

Finally,  the  electoral  results  put  this  beyond 
question.  The  Catholic  vote  is  less  than  a  fifth  of 
the  whole  (while  the  Catholic  population  claims  to  be 
more  than  a  third  of  the  whole).  On  a  wide  franchise, 
and  in  spite  of  intense  political  activity,  it  has  fallen 
from  27  to  19  per  cent,  in  thirty  years.  Moreover, 
ministerialists  are  lately  showing  a  tendency  to  dis- 
pense with  the  support  of  the  Centre  party,  the 
Catholic  workers  are  rent  into  factions  by  the  social 
issues  of  the  hour,  and  the  earlier  solid  opposition  to 
Socialism  (and  utility  to  the  government)  is  dis- 
appearing. A  corresponding  split  in  the  Catholic 
ranks  is  found  on  the  question  of  "modernism."  The 
Vatican  has  lately  (1907)  been  alarmed  at  the  wide 
support  given  to  theologians  whom  it  condemned. 
The  loss  of  the  German  Church  must  be  admitted 
to  be  at  least  5,000,000,  and  the  causes  of  the  leak- 
age are  more  active  than  ever  in  the  first  decade  of 
the  twentieth  century.  Mixed  marriages  grow  more 
numerous,  churchgoing  decays,  political  loyalty 
dwindles,  and  fresh  issues,  social  and  dogmatic,  further 
distract  and  enfeeble  the  Catholic  body. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  GERMANIC  WORLD— THE  AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN  EMPIRE 

WE  turn  now  to  the  largest  branch  of  the 
Roman  Church  that  survives  in  modern 
times.  According  to  the  official  returns 
the  Catholics  of  the  Austro- Hungarian  Empire  num- 
ber well  over  30,000,000  or  nearly  one-sixth  of  the 
entire  following  of  the  Vatican.  It  may  be  thought 
that  I  have  given  undue  prominence  to  the  German 
Church  in  assigning  to  it  the  first  place  in  the  Ger- 
manic world  and  suggesting  that  it  may  assume  a 
commanding  position  in  the  history  of  Catholicism. 
In  Austria  alone  the  Catholics  outnumber  those  of 
Germany,  and,  as  I  am  dealing  with  political  unities, 
I  must  add  to  these  the  millions  of  Hungary.  But 
the  justice  of  the  procedure  will  become  apparent 
in  the  course  of  the  present  chapter.  How  long 
Austria  and  Hungary  may  retain  the  few  imperial 
links  that  hold  them  together  to-day  we  do  not 
know,  and  even  in  our  time  the  Austro- Hungarian 
Church  is  perilously  conflicting  in  its  elements. 
Moreover,  we  shall  discover  that  decay  is  proceeding 
more  rapidly  in  the  case  of  Austrian  than  in  the  case 
of  German  Catholicism.  In  cultural  conditions  and 
in  the  probable  effect  of  any  interference  with  them, 
Austrian  Catholicism  must  rather  be  associated  with 
the  Latin  Churches. 

It  is  not  unnatural  that  we  should  find  the  largest 

branch    of    the    Catholic    Church    in    the    shrunken 

territory   of  the    Holy    Roman    Empire.      Into    that 

empire  Hungary  entered  on  the  eve  of  the  Reforma- 

227 


228     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

tion,  and  it  was  bound  to  feel  very  largely  the  effect 
of  the  counter-reformation,  and  the  strong  subse- 
quent alliance  with  the  Papacy.  But  in  deference 
to  Hungarian  feeling,  and  because,  indeed,  the  for- 
tunes of  the  Church  have  varied  materially  in  the 
two  nations,  we  will  devote  a  separate  consideration 
to  each. 


AUSTRIA 

A  very  brief  historical  statement  will  suffice  to 
prepare  the  reader  for  an  examination  of  the  Austrian 
Catholic  Church.  The  imperial  crown  that  the  Papacy 
bestowed  upon  the  great  Germanic  ruler  of  the  ninth 
century  created  a  link  that  was  to  prove  of  material 
service  to  the  Vatican  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation. 
It  was  from  Vienna  that  the  Jesuits  proceeded  in  their 
brilliant,  if  unscrupulous,  campaign  for  the  recovery 
of  the  Germanic  peoples  and  their  dependencies. 
Protestantism  did  indeed  make  great  inroads  even 
into  the  southern  portion  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire, 
especially  in  Bohemia  and  Hungary,  with  their  alien 
national  temperaments.  But  the  bayonets  of  the 
Austrian  troops  came  to  the  aid  of  Jesuit  and  Do- 
minican eloquence,  and  they  were  preserved  for  the 
Vatican.  As  the  imperial  armies  pushed  from  victory 
to  victory  in  the  early  stages  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  they  were  followed  by  clerical  and  civic 
officials  who  saw  to  the  extirpation  of  the  Lutheran 
heresy. 

Austria  was  so  effectively  restored  to  orthodoxy 
that,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Pro- 
testantism was  almost  unknown  in  it.  Bohemia  made 
the  more  stubborn  resistance  that  one  would  expect 
from   its  alien  nationality.      Enjoying  a  high  culture 


THE  AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN   EMPIRE     229 

— for  the  age — at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  it 
listened  intelligently  to  the  new  preachers,  and  joined 
willingly  in  the  protest  against  Roman  corruption. 
By  what  ghastly  devices  it  was  induced  to  return  to 
the  fold  the  reader  will  easily  surmise  from  our  earlier 
chapters,  and  from  the  fact  that  the  population  of 
Bohemia  fell  from  2,000,000  to  700,000  during  the 
religious  wars,  and  its  very  promising  civilisation  was 
blasted  for  two  centuries.  It  was  not  until  the  end  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  when  the  emperor  passed  an 
Edict  of  Toleration,  that  Protestantism  raised  its  head 
again  in  Bohemia.  In  the  meantime  it  had  recovered 
somewhat  in  Silesia,  where  the  Swedish  conqueror, 
Charles  XII.,  had,  in  1707,  compelled  the  Austrians 
to  restore  120  of  the  1000  Protestant  churches  they 
had  seized. 

Hence,  when  Joseph  II.  passed  his  Edict  of  Tolera- 
tion in  1 78 1,  the  Church  of  Rome  had  little  ground  for 
anxiety.  Some  alarm  was,  indeed,  caused  in  Bohemia, 
where  70,000  presumed  Catholics  threw  off  the  cloak, 
and  declared  themselves  Protestant,  the  moment  they 
were  free  to  do  so.  But  the  total  number  of  dissidents 
was  small.  What  concerned  Rome  more  was  the 
emperor's  cavalier  treatment  of  the  Vatican  and 
resolute  interference  with  ecclesiastical  matters.  He 
suppressed  700  monasteries,  and  reduced  the  number 
of  monks  from  63,000  to  27,000.  In  his  zeal  to 
emulate  the  comprehensive  activity  of  Frederick  the 
Great — who  scornfully  referred  to  him  as  "the 
sacristan  " — he  altered  the  character  of  ecclesiastical 
ceremonies,  dictated  the  quality  of  their  vestments, 
and,  in  fine,  brought  nearly  the  whole  of  Church  life 
under  imperial  control.  "  Josephism  "  has  passed  into 
the  vocabulary  of  Catholic  Austrian  writers,  and  to  it 
they  are  glad  to  ascribe  their  later  losses.  The  truth 
is  that,   for   all    his    blunders,   the  reforms  he  made 


230     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

probably   eased   the   pressure   of    the    revolutionary 
movements  on  the  Church. 

The  modern  phase  of  the  Austrian  Church  begins 
when  the  rulers  of  Europe  sat  down  to  retrace  the 
map  after  the  fall  of  Napoleon.  The  Holy  Roman 
Empire  had  crumbled  into  hopeless  ruin  at  the  touch 
of  Napoleon,  and,  though  Cardinal  Consalvi  made 
great  efforts  to  have  it  restored,  the  Austrian  ruler 
decided  to  cling  to  his  new  title  of  "  Emperor  of 
Austria."  The  empire  at  that  time  included  a  large 
part  of  northern  Italy,  the  Tirol,  Vorarlberg  and 
Salzberg,  Dalmatia  and  Galicia.  A  large  number  of 
Italian  and  Polish  Catholics  were  thus  united  with 
those  of  Austria,  and  the  Church  began  to  assume 
very  large  dimensions.  A  Polish  rising  in  1846  gave 
pretext  for  the  incorporation  of  the  last  fragment  of 
the  kingdom  of  Poland.  We  have  already,  in  the 
chapter  on  Italy,  seen  the  character  of  the  Austrian 
rule  after  181 5.  The  Viennese  court  and  its  chief 
statesman,  Metternich,  were  the  centre  of  the  whole 
European  reaction.  Liberty  was  entirely  stifled,  and 
progress  erased  from  the  Austrian  dictionary.  The 
press  and  literature  were  subject  to  a  drastic  censor- 
ship, and  a  special  secret  police  watched  for  the 
faintest  indication  of  progressive  or  heretical  temper. 
Catholicism  did  indeed  deteriorate ;  for  it  was  orthodoxy 
rather  than  piety,  submission  rather  than  character, 
that  was  sought.  But  from  1815  to  1848  the  clergy 
had  supreme  power  in  the  empire. 

Then  came  the  great  uprising  of  the  Liberals  and 
the  democracy.  Hardly  had  the  news  of  the  Revolu- 
tion at  Paris  reached  Vienna  when  the  flames  of 
rebellion  roared  throughout  the  whole  Austrian 
dominion.  Metternich  fled,  the  emperor  capitulated 
to  his  people,  and  a  large  measure  of  political  and 
religious  freedom  was  granted.     Within  another  year, 


THE   AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN   EMPIRE     231 

however,  the  Austrian  troops  had  trampled  under 
foot  the  new  ambitions  of  Italians,  Slavs,  Hungarians 
and  Czechs,  and  Catholicism  was  more  triumphant 
than  ever.  The  Vatican  had  hitherto  been  jealously 
excluded  from  interference  with  Austrian  life,  but 
the  fresh  revolutionary  outbreak  led  the  court  to  enter 
into  alliance  with  it.  The  Concordat  of  1855  embodied 
the  usual  compact  between  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
powers.  For  the  influence  accorded  to  it  for  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  Austria,  the  Vatican  was  to 
stifle  education  and  thunder  its  censures  upon  every 
democratic  aspiration.  The  constitution  of  1848  was 
torn  up,  the  Jesuits  and  monastic  bodies  were  restored 
to  favour,  and  the  clergy  were  entrusted  with  the 
work  of  "  education  "  ;  yet  from  that  time  we  may 
date  the  decay  of  the  Austrian  Church.  The  revolu- 
tionary movements  of  1848  were  not  blind  outbreaks 
of  igfnorant  workers,  but  the  calculated  work  of  the 
middle  class.  Under  the  terror  that  succeeded  their 
first  failure  they  gathered  secret  strength,  and  awaited 
the  next  opportunity  for  striking.  As  in  all  similar 
circumstances,  the  clergy  abused  their  restored  power, 
and  anticlericalism  spread  with  great  rapidity  in 
Austria.  I  need  touch  very  briefly  the  steps  in  the 
downfall  of  the  hierarchy.  In  1859  and  i860  the 
Austrians  were  swept  out  of  Italy,  and  in  the  hour 
of  defeat  Francis  Joseph  was  compelled  to  concede 
many  of  the  Liberal  demands.  Hungary  obtained  a 
separate  constitution,  a  Reichsrath  was  set  up,  with 
popular  representation,  and  the  clerical  control  of 
education  was  considerably  weakened.  In  a  few  years 
Austria  received  a  fresh  humiliation  from  Prussia, 
and  lost  all  that  remained  of  her  influence  in  Germany. 
Again  the  Liberals  pressed,  and  the  power  of  the 
clergy  was  further  enfeebled.  Hungary  secured  its 
autonomy,  civil  marriage  was  set  up,  and  education 


232     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

improved.  The  Liberals  came  to  power,  and  from 
that  time  onward  Austria  has  presented  the  remarkable 
spectacle  of  a  country  in  which  the  Catholics  number 
91  per  cent,  of  the  population  yet  the  political  life  is 
wholly  unfavourable  to  the  clergy.  "  One  of  the  most 
striking  features  of  modern  Austrian  political  life," 
the  Colquhouns  say,  in  their  admirable  work,  "has 
been  the  growing  antagonism  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  and  the  clerical  party.  It  is  almost  impossible 
to  describe  the  various  phases  of  this  revolt  and  the 
forms  which  it  is  taking  in  various  parts  of  the 
monarchy." l  We  shall  see  that  native  Catholic  writers 
are  not  less  candid.  The  Concordat  was  abrogated 
in  1875,  and  a  reformed  Reichsrath  limited  the  power 
of  the  clergy,  taxed  their  funds  and  controlled  the 
number  of  convents  and  monasteries.  The  Vatican 
and  the  clergy  protested  vehemently,  but  the  law  was 
passed — in  a  country  more  than  90  per  cent.  Catholic, 
and  with  a  wide  franchise — by  224  votes  to  71  ! 

But  political  life  in  Austria  has  of  late  years  been 
increasingly  complicated  with  racial  problems,  and  we 
will  turn  to  the  clearer  consideration  of  census  figures 
and  the  various  ways  we  have  learned  of  checking  the 
insincerity  of  census  declarations.  I  may  dismiss  the 
political  test  with  the  observation  that,  for  the  last 
forty  years,  the  clericals  have  never  obtained  power 
except  through  splits  in  the  Liberal  party  (Liberals, 
Radicals  and,  lately,  Socialists)  and  on  a  non-religious 
issue  like  Antisemitism  or  Czechism. 

We  will  take  first  the  census  statistics,  and  glean 

lc'The  Whirlpool  of  Europe"(i907), p.  244.  Mr  and  Mrs  Colquhoun 
give  this  verdict  on  the  present  strength  of  Catholicism  in  Austria  : 
"The  growth  of  German  Liberalism  has  affected  the  middle  and 
working  classes  in  the  towns,  but  the  aristocracy  and  the  agricultural 
peasants  are  under  priestly  influence  to  a  great  extent"  (p.  247). 
It  is  the  familiar  story — the  same  situation  as  in  Italy  and  Spain. 


THE  AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN   EMPIRE     233 

what  information  we  may  from  them.  At  once  we 
find  that,  as  in  the  case  of  Germany,  they  show  a  very 
appreciable  leakage.  In  1857  the  Catholics  of  Austria 
numbered  16,634,190,  or  92*6  of  the  total  population  : 
in  1900  they  were  returned  as  23,796,814,  or  90*99  of 
the  population.  In  every  single  province  but  one  in 
which  the  Catholics  number  more  than  1,000,000 
their  percentage  has  fallen — in  Lower  Austria  from 
98*5  to  92*49;  in  Steiermark  from  99*5  109374;  in 
Bohemia  from  96*3  to  96*2  ;  in  Galicia  from  89*6  to 
88*4.  In  Moravia  alone  and  Dalmatia  (where  they 
are  less  than  1,000,000)  they  show  a  slight  increase  of 
percentage.  The  Protestants  have  raised  their  per- 
centage almost  in  the  same  proportion,  but  their  total 
number  is  not  large.  On  the  face  of  the  matter  the 
Catholics  have  lost  500,000  in  the  forty  years ;  and 
we  shall  presently  see  that  the  real  loss  is  far  greater.1 
In  the  face  of  this  result  it  is  hardly  needful  to  dwell 
on  intermediate  statistics.  Throughout  the  period  we 
find  Catholic  writers  who  are  sensitive  of  their  loss 
of  power.  In  1880,  Dr  Jordan  observes,  in  a  minute 
account  of  Catholicism  at  that  time  : 

"  Pseudo-Liberalism,  the  enemy  of  religion  and  the 
nation,  has  during  its  brief  domination  brought  about 
so  general  a  moral  and  material  deterioration  that 
a  restoration  is  absolutely  necessary.  .  .  .  If  in  spite 
of  this  [overwhelming  majority  of  Catholics]  even  the 
most  just  claims  of  the  Church  have  in  recent  years 
been  repeatedly  rejected,  and  it  has  been  put,  not 
merely  on  a  level  with,  but  actually  lower  than,  other 
creeds,  it  is  time  that  Catholics  began  to  move."2 

1  I  borrow  the  earlier  figures  from  Dr  Rudolf  Urba's  work, 
"  Oesterreich's  Bedranger"  (p.  369).  Urba  is  a  devoted  Catholic, 
yet  he  adds  :     "The  results  in  the  year  1910  will  be  even  sadder." 

2  "Schematismus  der  gesammten  Katholische  Kirche  Osterreich- 
Ungarns." 


234  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

His  coreligionists  have  endeavoured  to  move 
energetically  enough  since  that  date,  but  every  decade 
has  revealed  their  failure.  Twenty  years  later  an- 
other Catholic  champion,  Dr  Urba,  had  to  write : 
"Accordine  to  statistics  Austria  is  Catholic.  That 
does  not  mean,  however,  that  the  Catholic  Church 
has  a  great  influence  on  public  life  and  the  people 
generally." 

The  next  point  is  to  determine  whether  the  Catholic 
percentage  ought  not  to  have  increased,  as  in  Germany, 
in  virtue  of  a  higher  birth-rate  amongst  the  Catholics. 
Here  we  have  not  the  exact  material  for  determining 
the  matter  that  we  had  in  the  case  of  Germany,  but 
we  have  ample  indications  that  the  law  of  greater 
Catholic  increase  holds  good.  From  the  official 
Vorltiufige  Ergebnisse  of  the  census  for  1900  I  take 
the  ratio  of  increase  of  the  population  in  the  different 
provinces  for  the  preceding  decade.  It  is  i6-o  per 
cent,  in  Lower  Austria  and  3*1  in  Upper  Austria; 
yet  in  the  former  the  Catholics  have  dropped  6  per 
cent,  in  half-a-century,  in  the  latter  (where  they  are 
less  numerous)  they  have  only  fallen  a  fraction  per 
cent.  The  increase  was  11*4  per  cent,  in  Salzberg, 
where  the  Catholic  percentage  has  dropped,  and  the 
Protestants  are  a  mere  handful;  13-5  in  the  Trieste 
district — another  case  of  greatly  diminished  Catholic 
percentage,  and  a  solidly  Catholic  district;  12*4  in 
Silesia;  129  in  Bukowina ;  ii'8  in  Tirol  and  Vorarl- 
berg — all  cases  of  lowered  Catholic  percentage.  As 
the  general  increase  for  Austria  was  only  9  per  cent, 
it  is  obvious  that  this  abnormal  increase  in  large  and 
solidly  Catholic  provinces  should  have  raised  the 
Catholic  percentage.  Instead  of  rising,  it  has  fallen 
in  them  all.  On  the  other  hand,  the  immigration  of 
Protestant  Germans  has  been  fairly  balanced  by  the 
immigration  of  Catholic  Italians;  though  probably  the 


THE  AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN   EMPIRE     235 

heavy  emigration  from  Austria  in  recent  years  has, 
on  the  whole,  told  against  the  Catholics. 

We  may  safely  repeat  that  the  census  figures  show 
a  loss  of  at  least  500,000.  But  we  are  quite  prepared 
to  look  for  the  real  truth  behind  the  census  statistics, 
and  we  shall  find  them  as  fallacious  in  the  case  of 
Austria  as  in  the  case  of  Italy  or  Spain.  The 
proportion  of  priests,  it  is  interesting  to  note,  is  less 
than  1  to  1 200  Catholics ;  but  we  have  in  the  case  of 
Austria  one  or  two  surer  indications. 

In  the  first  place  we  may  glance  at  the  official 
Statistisches  Jahrbuch  der  S tacit  Wien  (1905).  There 
are  supposed  to  be  about  1,500,000  Roman  Catholics 
and  about  50,000  Protestants  at  Vienna.  The  Pro- 
testants have  fifteen  places  of  worship,  a  small  enough 
proportion,  but,  as  we  saw,  Protestant  churchgoing  is 
no  test  of  numbers.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find  that 
the  Roman  Catholics  of  Vienna  have  only  116  places 
of  worship,  and  only  75  of  these  have  a  parochial 
status.  There  are,  in  addition,  213  chapels  attached 
to  schools,  barracks,  cemeteries,  etc. ;  but  the  fact 
that  interests  us  is  that  the  more  than  1,000,000  free 
Catholic  civilians  of  Vienna  have  only  116  chapels. 
This  means  a  proportion  of  at  least  10,000  Catholics 
to  every  chapel !  I  need  not  insist  that  this  is 
absolutely  impossible.  Not  500,000  people  (of  the 
free  citizens)  can  possibly  attend  mass  in  Vienna 
every  Sunday ;  and  I  am  informed  by  Viennese 
residents  that  this  is  an  entirely  just  conclusion. 
Vienna  is  fast  becoming  a  second  Paris  in  regard 
to  religious  feeling  and  observance.  Only  the  in- 
fluence of  the  court  holds  it  to  a  superficial  profession 
of  Catholicism  in  its  higher  circles,  and  the  middle 
class  and  the  workers  are  following  the  bourgeois  and 
the  ouvriers  of  Paris. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  one  of  the  largest  provinces  of 


236     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Austria,  containing  more  than  a  fourth  of  its  whole 
population,  Bohemia.  The  writer  whom  I  have  already 
quoted,  Rudolf  Urba,  is  an  ardent  Bohemian  Catholic, 
and  his  work,  "  Oesterreich's  Bedranger,"  has  some 
instructive  and  weighty  pages  on  Bohemian  Catholic- 
ism. They  number  more  than  6,000,000  in  the  census 
results,  and  have  a  much  higher  degree  of  literacy 
than  the  Catholics  of  the  West.  But  they  are  rent  in 
two  by  the  eternal  racial  quarrel,  and  Urba's  defence 
of  the  Czech  Catholics  against  the  German  Catholics 

O 

reveals  a  remarkable  state  of  things,  and  gives  us  one 
more  illustration  of  the  worth  of  census  declarations. 

"The  condition  of  the  Church  in  Austria,"  he  says 
(p.  353),  "  is  very  distressing.  There  are,  for  instance, 
parts  of  northern  Bohemia  where  the  priest  is  super- 
fluous. Not  a  single  man  goes  to  church  the  whole 
year  round,  whether  the  priest  be  a  Czech  or  a 
German."  And  he  quotes  "  Austriacus  "  writing  in  the 
Catholic  Wahrheit :  "  The  number  of  parishes  has 
gone  down.  A  bishop  who  wished  to  raise  a  well- 
provided  mission  into  a  parish  could  not  secure  a 
candidate  for  six  years.  The  number  of  parishes 
remains  small,  and  most  of  the  priests  have  a  poor 
position.  In  the  towns  the  priests  are  frequently 
insulted  and  reviled,  especially  by  students."  The 
details  with  which  he  supports  these  statements  afford 
one  of  those  rare  glimpses  that  we  get  into  the  con- 
dition of  the  Church  in  "Catholic  countries."  In  the 
district  of  Toplitz  and  Dux  there  are  32,000  workers, 
or  a  Bohemian  Catholic  population  of  120,000  souls. 
"  In  consequence  of  the  complete  neglect  of  those 
colonies  in  spiritual  matters  there  has  been  a  frightful 
demoralisation."  I  gather  that  these  workers  have 
mainly  gone  over  to  the  Social  Democrats.  Urba  gives 
a  list  of  scores  of  places  that  have  minorities  of 
Bohemian  Catholics  numbering  from  1000  to   10,000. 


THE  AUSTRO  HUNGARIAN    EMPIRE     237 

They  have  no  Bohemian  priest,  and  none  of  them  ever 
go  to  church.  "In  all  these  large  communities,"  he  says, 
"  even  the  children  attending  the  Bohemian  schools  do 
not  see  a  priest  from  one  end  of  the  year  to  the  other, 
and  never  receive  the  sacraments  "  (p.  360).  And  he 
assures  us  that  this  statement  applies  to  "hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Bohemian  workers. "  I  ndeed  the  specific 
cases  he  gives  show  a  loss  of  more  than  500,000. 

Once  more,  therefore,  where  we  can  apply  a  serious 
test  to  the  census  figures  of  Catholicism  we  find  them 
to  be  utterly  worthless.  In  Austria,  as  in  most  other 
countries,  a  census  of  churchgoers  (the  only  Catholics 
worthy  of  the  name,  in  view  of  their  solemn  obligation) 
would  throw  a  lurid  light  on  the  condition  of  the 
country.  Unfortunately,  this  is  precisely  the  aspect 
of  Catholicism  that  is  most  neglected  by  its  innumer- 
able critics,  and  I  can  only  ask  the  reader  to  apply 
the  condition  we  find  in  Vienna  and  Bohemia,  with  a 
fit  sense  of  proportion,  to  the  whole  empire.  The 
situation  rapidly  approaches  that  we  found  in  Catholic 
Italy.  The  anti-papal  bias  of  the  dominant  Liberal 
party  reflects  the  temper  of  the  best-educated  class  : 
it  is  mainly  anti-Roman.  As  to  the  workers,  it  is 
enough  to  point  out  that  the  Austrian  Socialists  have 
the  largest  Parliamentary  group  in  the  world,  and 
secured  nearly  1,000,000  votes  at  the  1907  election. 
We  may  conclude  with  Mr  and  Mrs  Colquhoun  that 
"the  aristocracy  and  the  peasants"  are  still  Catholic; 
it  reminds  us  strangely  of  Bolton  King  and  Okey's 
verdict  on  Italy  about  the  same  period — that  "the 
women  and  the  peasants  "  are  faithful  to  the  Vatican.1 

1  I  need  not  point  out  with  what  reserve  we  must  accept  the 
orthodoxy  of  the  Austrian  aristocracy.  It  is  largely  dynastic  and 
political.  I  remember  a  conversation  I  had  on  the  matter  with  a 
distinguished  member  of  the  Viennese  aristocracy.  Intellectually 
he  was  an  Agnostic :  politically  a  Catholic. 


238     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

I   cannot  conclude  without  a  glance  at  the  nature 
of    the    Roman   Catholic    body    in    Austria,    so    that 
the  reader  may  have  some  guidance  in  estimating  its 
coming  fortunes.     That  it  is  not  generally  of  a  high 
moral  and  intellectual  quality  is  well  known.     Meyer 
gives  the  percentage  of  illegitimate  births  in  Austria 
as  426  per   1000.     The  Vienna   Year  Book  for  1905 
gives  16,867  illegitimate  to  38,849  legitimate  births.1 
As  to  literacy,  we  find  that  much  more  than  a  third 
of  the  population  (in  1907)  can  neither  read  nor  write  : 
30  per  cent,  over  the  age  of  six  are  utterly  illiterate. 
But  this  is  not  a  full  expression  of  the  state  of  things 
from  our  present  point  of  view.     Millions  of  the  literate 
Catholics   of  Austria   are    as    remote    from   modern 
thought  as  if  they  lived  in  the  centre  of  Africa.     The 
Poles  and  Ruthenes  of  Galicia,  the  Italians,  Friaulians 
and  Ladinians  of  Tirol  and  the  coast,  the  Slovenes  of 
Carinthia   and    Carniola,    and   the    Roumanians   and 
Serbo-Croats   of  Dalmatia  and   Bukowina  make  up 
45  per  cent,  of  the  Catholicism  of  Austria,  and  their 
cultural  condition  is  well  known.      If  modern  education 
and  culture  penetrate  into  the  villages  of  these  back- 
ward peoples,  as  they  are  doing  in  any  other  countries, 
we  may  reasonably  expect   the  same  result — a  very 
large  withdrawal  of  allegiance  to  the  Vatican.     Nearly 
3,000,000  of  them   belong  to  the  retrograde   Greek 
Catholic  Church,  but  as  these  are  in  union  with  Rome 
I  have  included  them  in  the  figures  I  have  given. 

The  dense  ignorance  of  so  many  millions  of  the 
population  is  enough  to  account  for  the  slower  decay 
of  these  parts  of  the  Austrian  Church. 

The  intense  racial  and  political  quarrels  that  absorb 
what  mental  energy  they  have  are  another  hindrance 
to  progress.    Austria  is  made  up  of  9,000,000  Germans, 

1  Catholic  Austria,  Hungary  and  Portugal  are  the  three  worst 
countries  in  Europe  in  this  respect. 


THE  AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN   EMPIRE     239 

6,000,000  Czechs,  4, 2 50,000  Poles,  3,000,000  Ruthenes, 
and  3,000,000  Slovenes,  Serbo-Croats,  Roumanians 
and  Italians,  with  1,250,000  Jews.  The  Jews  are  the 
most  cultivated  and  the  most  wealthy.  In  the  Austrian 
universities  167  of  the  students  are  Jews  ;  though  they 
are  only  4*6  per  cent,  of  the  population.  There  are 
powerful  journals  on  the  staff  of  which  hardly  a  single 
Christian  can  be  found.  The  bitter  Antisemitic  war 
which  the  Catholics  wage  will,  in  the  long  run,  bring 
a  heavy  punishment. 

In  the  German-Slav  conflict  the  attitude  of  the 
Church  is  more  complicated.  Czech  Catholics  com- 
plain bitterly  that  their  clerical  authorities  favour  the 
hated  process  of  Germanisation,  and  Italian  Catholics 
in  the  south  make  the  same  complaint.  The  lower 
clergy,  however,  being  of  the  people,  generally  side 
with  the  local  nationality,  and  add  the  strength  of  a 
political  passion  to  their  hold  over  the  people.  Some 
years  ago  the  Slovenes  of  Carinthia  and  Carniola 
secured  power,  and  restored  their  cumbrous  language 
and  retrograde  national  character.  The  Catholic 
clergy  supported  them,  out  of  protest  against  the 
growing  Liberalism  of  the  Germans.  Generally 
speaking,  the  Catholic  clergy  support  the  Pan-Slav 
movement,  and  oppose  the  Pan-German,  because 
Germany  stands  for  Protestantism,  Liberalism  and 
Socialism.  The  political  future,  into  which  I  cannot 
venture,  will  determine  their  gain  or  loss  by  this  pro- 
cedure. It  is  significant  enough,  however,  that,  though 
the  last  elections  were  fought  on  a  basis  of  manhood 
suffrage,  the  clericals  lost  heavily,  while  the  Socialists 
and  Pan-Germans  gained.  Out  of  the  423  members 
of  the  Reichsrath  after  the  elections  of  1901,  only 
twenty  belonged  to  the  Catholic  Volkspartei  and 
two  to  the  Czech  clerical  party.  Some  of  the 
Catholic    leaders    were    badly   beaten    in    what   were 


240     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

regarded    as    their    strongholds — as    Baron     Dipauli 
was  at  Botzen. 

The  bitterly  anti-Catholic  German  Radicals  re- 
turned twenty-one  deputies,  and  the  Socialists  eighty- 
seven  (with  a  total  vote  of  936,673,  or  nearly  a  fifth 
of  the  electorate).  It  may  well  be  doubted  if  the 
Church  has  not  made  one  more  of  its  fatal  blunders 
in  falling  back  upon  the  more  ignorant  elements  of 
the  population. 

One  recent  outcome  of  the  struggle — the  "  Los  von 
Rom  "  movement  seems  to  have  attracted  an  undue 
amount  of  interest,  and  may  be  dismissed  in  a  few 
words.  The  secessions  from  Rome  to  Protestantism 
in  the  last  ten  years  are  only  a  moderate  increase  in 
a  process  that  has  been  going  on,  as  in  Germany,  for 
many  years.  In  1897  a  great  gathering  of  German 
students  at  Vienna  University  made  an  impassioned 
protest  against  the  tyranny  of  Rome,  and  a  heated 
agitation  set  in.  Politicians  of  the  Pan-German  school 
fell  in  with  it,  and  it  is  even  asserted  that  funds  and 
apostles  were  supplied  from  Germany.  In  many 
districts,  no  doubt,  the  movement  assumed  a  purely 
religious  character.  Whole  villages  solemnly  abjured 
Catholicism,  and  embraced  Protestantism.  But  the 
magnitude  of  the  movement  seems  to  have  been 
greatly  exaggerated.  The  Evangelical  Consistory 
Council  of  Austria  officially  states  that  its  net  gain 
from  Catholicism  between  1899  and  1904  was  24,238. 
Since  the  latter  date  the  movement  has  hardly  main- 
tained its  strength,  and  it  has  been  checked  by  the 
authorities  for  the  too  openly  expressed  demand  for 
union  with  Germany  that  some  of  its  speakers  enter- 
tain. On  the  other  hand,  it  is  untrue  that  the  move- 
ment has  ceased.  I  find  an  account  of  the  solemn 
abjuration  of  Catholicism  by  forty-seven  university 
students,  in  a  Lutheran  church  at  Vienna,  in   1905  ; 


THE  AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN   EMPIRE     241 

and  the  Viennese  Jahrbuck  tells  that  there  were  in  that 
city  alone  1690  secessions  from  Catholicism  in  the  same 
year.  The  "Old  Catholics  " (who reject  the  infallibility 
of  the  Pope)  received  many  thousands  of  seceders  in 
addition  to  those  recorded  by  the  Protestant  clergy. 

But  the  whole  movement  expresses  only  a  small 
fraction  of  Rome's  real  loss  in  Austria.  The  serious 
loss  of  percentage  in  the  last  fifty  years,  in  spite  of 
the  slower  growth  of  the  Protestant  communities  and 
the  obvious  gains  from  Greek  and  Oriental  Catholics, 
shows,  even  accepting  the  census  figures,  a  loss  that 
runs  to  many  hundred  thousands.  But  this  again 
is  only  a  fraction  of  the  real  loss.  We  saw  that,  in 
the  only  two  instances  where  more  precise  tests  are 
available — Vienna  and  Bohemia — the  census  figures 
are  seen  to  be  ridiculous.  The  political  situation  fully 
confirms  this.  Half  the  electorate  return  anti-Catholic 
deputies;  the  bulk  of  the  remainder  are  deaf  to 
clerical  appeals,  and  vote  only  on  political  issues. 
Fully  3,000,000  of  the  literate  and  adult  population 
have  been  lost  by  the  Church  of  Rome  in  Austria 
since  1848. 


HUNGARY 


The  situation  of  the  Church  in  Hungary  is  in  many 
respects  similar  to  that  it  holds  in  Austria.  Until 
1867  the  intolerant  laws  of  Catholic  Austria  applied 
equally  to  Hungary,  but  there  was  an  even  stronger 
tradition  of  Liberalism  in  the  Magyar  kingdom,  and 
the  granting  of  a  separate  constitution  gave  it  ample 
power.  There  are  to-day  11,774,056  Roman  and 
Greek  Catholics  in  Hungarian  territory,  out  of  a  total 
population  of  19,250,000.  The  core  of  the  Catholic 
body  consists  of  some  5,000,000  Magyars,  chiefly  of 
Q 


242     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

the  peasant  class,  and  with  them  are  associated,  in 
a  conflicting  and  heterogeneous  mass,  1,750,000 
Germans  and  5,000,000  Slovaks,  Serbo-Croats, 
Ruthenians,  etc.,  generally  of  the  most  ignorant 
character.  And  the  body  is  torn  by  a  German-Slav- 
Magyar  conflict  that  makes  it  difficult  to  reach  men's 
real  religious  convictions. 

I  have  already  mentioned  that  the  Magyar  nobles 
offered  the  crown  of  Hungary  to  Austria  on  the  very 
eve  of  the  Reformation,  and,  under  Austrian  influence, 
the  progress  of  Protestantism  was  kept  within  bounds 
in  the  country.  Its  religious  history  up  to  1848  was 
bound  up  with  that  of  Austria,  and  need  not  detain  us. 
In  1848,  however,  a  successful  revolution  was  effected 
in  Hungary,  and  from  that  date  Catholicism  decayed 
amongst  cultivated  Hungarians.  Of  the  great 
political  movement  that  is  associated  with  the  names 
of  Kossuth,  Pulzky,  Deak  and  Andrassy  it  is  not 
necessary  to  speak  here.  Their  republic,  weakened 
from  the  first  by  its  conflicting  racial  elements,  was 
soon  shattered  by  the  Austrian  troops,  and  the  rule  of 
Vienna  was  restored.  But  they  left  in  the  country  a 
tradition  of  anticlerical  Liberalism  that  is  shared  by 
most  of  the  Hungarian  middle  class  to-day.  Many 
laws  have  been  passed  in  defiance  of  the  clergy, 
making  civil  marriage  obligatory,  enacting  that  in 
mixed  marriages  boys  shall  be  baptised  in  the  religion 
of  the  father  and  girls  in  that  of  the  mother,  and 
removing  the  registers  into  the  hands  of  civilians. 

Down  to  our  own  time  the  Liberals  have  more  than 
sustained  the  conflict  with  the  clericals — as  we  shall 
see — but  the  issue  has  now  been  gravely  complicated 
by  the  Slav-Magyar  controversy.  The  Magyars,  as 
the  more  civilised  body,  naturally  claim  precedence 
over  the  less  advanced  Slavs  and  Roumanians,  and 
the    Slavs    fiercely    resist   what   they   regard    as    an 


THE  AUSTRO-HUNGAR1AN    EMPIRE     243 

attempt  to  obliterate  their  national  character.  The 
priests  have  taken  the  side  of  the  more  backward 
nationalities,  and  this  has,  for  the  time,  tended  to 
preserve  the  integrity  of  the  Church  in  Hungary. 
The  prelates  have,  it  is  true,  sided  openly  with 
the  dominant  class.  Urba  complains  bitterly  that 
Hungarian  bishops  have  encouraged  the  "  Magyar- 
isation"  of  his  fellow-Slavs  of  Hungary,  and  Yves 
Guyot  says  that  at  the  critical  elections  of  1899  "the 
higher  clergy  voted  with  the  Liberals."  But  the 
lower  clergy  were  ranged  against  their  Magyar  or 
German  prelates.  Even  bishops,  like  Archbishop 
Stadler  of  Saraojewo  in  1900,  have  been  gravely 
censured  by  the  political  authorities  for  inflammatory 
political  addresses  to  the  Pan-Slavists. 

This  chaotic  conflict  in  modern  Austria- Hungary 
has  so  important  an  influence  on  the  fortunes  of  the 
Church  that  I  cannot  ignore  it,  yet  cannot  hope,  in  a 
small  space,  to  give  a  clear  idea  of  it.1  I  may  say 
briefly  that  the  clergy  at  present  gain  by  their  par- 
ticipation in  the  political  struggle.  The  attitude  of 
the  Magyar  clergy  conciliates  the  Protestants  and 
Liberals  of  Hungary  proper,  who  would  dread  a 
complete  alliance  of  the  Catholic  clergy  with  the  Pan- 
Slav  movement.  But  at  the  same  time  the  patriotism 
of  the  Slav  priests  secures  the  devotion  of  the 
Slovaks  and  Serbo-Croats  and  Ruthenians.  The 
familiar  situation  in  Ireland  will  give  the  reader  some 
idea  of  this.  A  clergy  that  vies  with  the  popular 
patriotic  orators  in  denouncing  the   "tyranny"  of  a 

1  The  interested  reader  will  find  an  impartial  and  valuable  account 
in  A.  R.  and  E.  Colquhoun's  "Whirlpool  of  Europe."  I  have 
collated  Urba's  "  Oesterreich's  Bedranger  "  (a  Catholic  Czech  work) ; 
Bresnitz  von  Sydacoffs  "  Die  Wahrheit  fiber  Ungarn  "  (anti-Slav  and 
anticlerical) ;  Felbermann's  "  Hungary  and  its  People  "  (of  Magyar 
bias),  and  Boulier's  "  Les  Tcheques "  (of  Czech  inspiration)  and 
others. 


244     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

ruling  caste,  of  alien  nationality,  does  more  to 
strengthen  its  position  than  a  clergy  that  acts  on  the 
principle  of  its  kingdom  being  not  of  this  world. 
Even  neutral  writers  like  the  Colquhouns  are  sensible 
of  this.  They  say,  for  instance,  that  the  Slovaks  (a 
Slav  people  in  Hungary,  numbering  about  2,000,000), 
"a  simple  people,  in  a  primitive  state  of  develop- 
ment," are  "chiefly  exploited  by  the  clerical  party 
to  form  a  counterpoise  to  the  growing  Liberalism 
of  Hungary."1  The  other  Hungarian  elements  in 
the  Pan-Slav  movement  are  not  spoken  of  with  any 
greater  respect  by  those  who  know  them.  Felbermann 
describes  the  Ruthenians  as  "but  slightly  touched  by 
the  waves  of  civilisation  "  and  the  Wallachians  (a  non- 
Slav  people  that  enter  largely  into  the  Catholic  total) 
as  "very  ignorant,  cunning  and  superstitious."  The 
Serbo-Croats  are  at  the  same  level  of  development. 

These  are  the  elements  that  make  up  more  than  40 
per  cent,  out  of  the  Catholic  population  of  Hungary. 
Nearly  40  per  cent,  of  the  remainder  are  Magyar 
peasants,  whose  cultural  condition  is  not  very  much 
higher.  In  a  Magyar  work  of  the  year  1890,  Dr 
Bela's  "  Statisztikai  Tanulmanyok  a  Magyar  Pro- 
testantizmusr61,"  I  find  a  close  analysis  of  the  religions 
of  Hungary  that  makes  this  clear.  It  shows  that  the 
Roman  Catholics  are  44*29  per  cent.  Magyar,  15*95 
per  cent.  German,  1579  per  cent.  Slovak  and  18*44 
per  cent.  Serbo-Croat.  The  Greek  Catholics  are 
mainly  Wallachian  (or  Roumanian)  and  Ruthene. 
As  the  lower  races  outgrow  the  Magyars  and 
Germans,  the  proportion  is  much  worse  to-day.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Calvinists  (who  form  two-thirds 
of  the    Hungarian    Protestants)  are    Magyar  to  the 

1  "The  Whirlpool  of  Europe,"  p.  285.  Felbermann  speaks  of 
the  Slovaks  as  "stupid  and  cowardly,"  and  "almost  as  ignorant  as 
their  ancestors  were  when  Arpad  conquered  Hungary." 


THE  AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN   EMPIRE     245 

extent  of  94  per  cent.  We  must  not,  therefore,  look 
for  any  great  decrease  in  the  number  of  the  Hungarian 
Catholics.  Political  prestige  they  have  assuredly  lost, 
but  so  long  as  the  Church  retains  its  hold  on  the 
prolific  population  of  the  least  educated  provinces,  and 
encourages  the  anti-Magyar  sentiment  that  inflames 
them,  its  percentage  must  remain  high.  Dr  Bartha 
Bela  (in  the  work  I  have  quoted)  and  Dr  Juraschek 
("Die  Staaten  Europas")  give  the  Roman  Catholic 
percentage  as  47*8  in  1857  (a  point  I  have  verified) 
and  50 •  1  in  1880.  The  increase  is  greater  than 
the  Catholic  birth-rate  demands,  but  it  is  due  en- 
tirely to  accessions  from  the  retrograde  Greek  and 
Oriental  Catholic  bodies.  These  prolific  communities 
fell  considerably  in  percentage,  while  the  slower- 
breeding  Protestants  and  Unitarians  maintained  their 
level. 

Since  1880  the  Roman  Catholic  percentage  has 
advanced  at  a  very  much  slower  rate.  In  1890  it 
stood  at  50*84  :  in  1900  at  51*5.  When  we  learn  that 
since  1857  the  Oriental  Catholics  have  gone  down 
about  5  per  cent.,  we  see  at  once  the  source  of  the 
slight  Catholic  gain,  and  we  can  gather  that  it  hides 
a  very  serious  loss.  The  decay  of  the  Greek  and 
Oriental  Catholics,  who  have  the  highest  birth-rate  in 
the  kingdom  (the  Roumanians,  Servians,  and  Ruthen- 
ians),  means  obviously  that  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  them  have  made  the  easy  transition  to  the  Roman 
Church.  People  of  these  races  do  not  emigrate  much 
and  never  become  Protestants  or  Freethinkers.  They 
have  made  a  considerable  addition  to  the  Roman 
body.  Now  the  Roman  birth-rate  is  quite  enough 
to  explain  its  slight  increase  in  percentage  without 
this  addition,  and  we  are  forced  to  conclude  that 
the  accession  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  ignorant 
Wallachians,    Servians   and    Ruthenians    has   merely 


246     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

concealed  the  loss  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Magyar 
and  German  Catholics  of  a  higher  type. 

A  glance  at  the  political  world  entirely  confirms 
this.  The  Liberals  of  Hungary  observed,  in  the 
early  nineties,  that  the  Catholic  clergy  were  making 
strenuous  efforts  to  secure  all  the  children  that  were 
born  of  mixed  marriages,  as  the  law  of  the  Church 
directs.  But  the  Liberals  had  passed  a  law  twenty 
years  before  to  the  effect  that,  in  such  families,  the 
boys  must  follow  the  religion  of  the  father  and  the 
girls  that  of  the  mother.  A  conflict  was  soon  raging, 
and  the  priests  appealed  forcibly  to  their  followers  to 
oust  the  Liberals  and  have  the  law  of  the  Church 
respected.  The  fight  was  dragged  on  to  our  own 
time,  but  the  only  issue  of  it  has  been  the  remarkable 
success  of  the  most  explicitly  anticlerical  group,  the 
Kossuthists.  In  the  elections  of  1899  (after  civil 
marriage  had  been  made  obligatory)  the  Kossuthist 
deputies  rose  from  47  to  74.  In  1901  a  split  in  the 
Liberal  camp  occurred,  but  the  Kossuthists  rose  still 
further.  In  1905  their  group  of  delegates  rose  to  163 
(and  there  were  other  anticlerical  groups),  while  the 
Catholic  peoples  party  could  secure  only  23  seats! 
Finally,  in  1906,  the  Liberals  and  Kossuthists  united, 
and  at  a  fresh  election  the  Kossuthists  won  250  seats 
in  400.  The  main  issue  of  their  party  is,  of  course, 
separation  from  Austria ;  but  they  are  professedly 
anti- Roman,  and  their  extraordinary  success  suffi- 
ciently reflects  the  religious  temper  of  the  educated 
Magyars. 

The  Church  has,  indeed,  only  a  majority  of  illiterates 
who  are  still  nearly  50  per  cent,  of  the  population  of 
Hungary.  Amongst  the  Magyars  the  work  of  educa- 
tion is  proceeding  rapidly  and  effectively,  and  it  has 
its  usual  effect  upon  Catholicism.  But  the  Croats 
and  other  Catholic  groups  are  illiterate  to  the  extent 


THE  AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN   EMPIRE     247 

of  nearly  70  per  cent.  In  such  an  environment  the 
encouragement  of  the  Pan-Slav  movement  by  the 
Catholic  priests  is  enough  to  maintain  the  supremacy 
of  Rome.  Whether  it  be  true  that  the  Vatican 
deliberately  encourages  the  movement  in  the  hope 
that,  in  the  event  of  a  disruption  of  Austria- Hungary, 
the  Slav  peoples  will  come  together  in  one  empire 
or  republic,  over  which  Rome  will  have  a  unique 
influence,  one  cannot  say.  Certainly  some  of  its 
prelates  entertain  that  dream.  But  even  if  Austria- 
Hungary  break  up,  Russia  and  Germany  will  never 
allow  the  construction  of  such  a  kingdom.  And  when 
the  frenzy  of  racial  passions  has  subsided,  and  the 
light  of  modern  culture  breaks  upon  the  calmer  mind 
of  the    Slavs,  we   shall  see  the   customary  rebellion 

against  Catholicism. 
0 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  GERMANIC  WORLD— SWITZERLAND 

THE  small  Catholic  population  of  Switzerland 
does  not  of  itself  require  very  lengthy  con- 
sideration, but  the  singular  history  and 
political  features  of  the  country  invest  it  with  a 
peculiar  interest.  It  is  the  only  country  in  Europe 
where  monarchic  pressure  has  not  influenced  the 
religious  profession  of  the  people  from  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  to-day  it  is  the  theatre 
of  our  most  advanced  democratic  experiments.  These 
circumstances  will  seem  to  many  to  give  especial 
value  to  the  fortunes  of  Roman  Catholicism  in 
Switzerland  ;  and  when  they  learn,  as  they  constantly 
do,  that  the  Church  has  throughout  maintained  its 
ground,  and  is  to-day  making  considerable  progress, 
amongst  the  free  and  sturdy  Swiss,  they  are  inclined 
to  see  in  the  fact  a  peculiar  and  unsuspected  aptitude 
of  Catholicism  to  thrive  in  an  entirely  democratic 
atmosphere. 

I  may  so  far  anticipate  my  conclusion  as  to  say 
that  this  estimate  of  the  Swiss  Church  is  wrong  in 
many  important  respects.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century — and  the  situation  was  worse  in 
earlier  centuries — the  tenor  of  Swiss  life  was  rather 
aristocratic  than  democratic.  By  the  middle  of  the 
century  the  power  was  diffused  among  a  much  larger 
body  of  the  citizens,  and  the  change  was  disastrous 
for  Catholicism.  In  later  decades,  when  even  more 
advanced  political  forms  have  been  adopted,  the 
Church  has  suffered  more  severely  than  ever,  and  its 

248 


SWITZERLAND  249 

authority  is  now  gradually  shrinking  to  the  less 
educated  communities  of  the  Swiss  Federation.  It 
has  to  admit  enormous  numerical  losses  and  a  political 
defeat  that  can  only  bear  one  construction  in  so 
democratic  a  nation. 

The  Swiss  are  predominantly  Germanic,  but  the 
fact  of  more  than  one-third  of  the  population  being 
Roman  Catholic  does  not  point  to  any  serious  recovery 
of  ground  since  the  Reformation.  In  that  great 
medieval  disruption  seven  of  the  cantons  remained 
faithful  to  the  Vatican.  It  is  said  ("  Historian's 
History  of  the  World")  that  "the  corruption  of  the 
clergy  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
seems  to  have  been  more  general  and  barefaced  than 
in  the  other  countries  of  Europe."  One  hesitates  to 
accept  this  estimate  of  the  Swiss  historian,  because 
one  finds  the  historian  of  nearly  every  other  nation 
laying  claim  to  the  same  distinction.  However,  that 
may  be,  Zwingli  found  an  audience  no  less  responsive, 
when  he  began  to  denounce  the  sale  of  indulgences 
in  15 18,  than  Luther  did  among  the  northern 
Germans.  The  great  cantons  of  Zurich  and  Berne, 
and  many  smaller  ones,  became  wholly  Protestant. 
But  the  reformers  somewhat  marred  the  success  of 
their  work  by  taking  pronounced  sides  on  political 
questions,  and  seven  of  the  cantons — Schwyz,  Uri, 
Unterwalden,  Zug,  Lucerne,  Friburg  and  Solothurn 
— were  preserved  for  Catholicism.  The  Jesuits  were 
quickly  summoned  to  Lucerne,  the  centre  (then  and 
now)  of  Catholic  influence,  and  the  religious  war 
proceeded  briskly.  One  word  will  suffice,  however, 
to  show  how  the  Catholics  have  fared  since  Zwinofli's 
time.  Reinforced  by  half  of  Appenzell  and  St  Gall, 
they  counted  seventeen  votes  out  of  twenty-nine  in  the 
Swiss  Diet,  and  they  practically  retained  the  ascend- 
ancy until   1847  (though  it  was  much  weakened  after 


250  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

17 1 2).  Since  1848  their  federal  influence  has  sunk 
lower  and  lower,  and  in  the  National  Rat,  elected  on 
a  basis  of  manhood  suffrage,  they  now  secure  only 
some  20  representatives  out  of  160. 

Until  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  balance 
of  numbers  and  power  was  preserved  by  drastic 
coercion  in  both  the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant 
cantons.  Then  the  flood  of  French  feeling  burst 
over  Switzerland,  and  the  new  era  of  restless  change 
began.  I  need  only  note  that  the  Napoleonic  treat- 
ment of  the  country  vitally  enfeebled  its  Conservative 
and  aristocratic  features,  and,  although  the  cantons 
settled  down  again  to  a  somewhat  sluggish  life  until 
1830,  the  germs  of  Radicalism  were  pushing  vigorously 
in  its  soil.  From  that  date — the  second  inflow  of 
revolutionary  feeling  from  France  —  the  modern 
struggle  of  Roman  and  anti- Roman  began.  Each 
canton  took  its  own  measures  in  regard  to  religion 
— of  the  new  cantons  for  instance,  Valais  stringently 
excluded  Protestantism,  and  Vaud  as  severely  re- 
pressed Catholicism  ;  but  the  spread  of  literature  was 
enfeebling  the  old  barriers,  and  the  new  Radicalism 
was  engendering  a  feeling  of  great  hostility  to  Rome. 

In  1834  seven  of  the  cantons  decided  to  appro- 
priate all  conventual  premises,  and  convert  them  into 
"useful"  institutions.  When  Aargau  gave  effect  to 
the  resolution  in  1841,  the  Catholics  began  to  arm 
and  organise  against  the  rising  menace  to  their  faith. 
The  Jesuits  were  brought  back  to  Lucerne,  Friburg 
and  Valais,  and  the  whole  country  was  soon  seething 
with  excitement  over  the  question  of  their  expulsion. 
Time  after  time  troops  of  Radical  "  free  lances  "  made 
armed  descents  upon  the  Ultramontane  stronghold, 
Lucerne,  but  they  were  repulsed,  and  the  Catholics 
drew  closer  together  throughout  the  Federation. 
The  Radicals  now  secured  a  majority  in  the  federal 


SWITZERLAND  251 

council,  and  after  stormy  discussions  decided  that 
the  Jesuits  must  leave  the  country.  Once  more  in 
the  history  of  Europe  the  followers  of  St  Ignatius 
became  the  centre  of  a  passionate  struggle.  Rightly 
enough — as  I  think — the  Catholics  concluded  that  the 
new  force  in  the  country  was  fundamentally  hostile 
to  their  creed  and  interests,  and  the  sombre  prepara- 
tions for  civil  war  darkened  the  hills  and  valleys 
of  Switzerland.  The  seven  Catholic  cantons  united 
in  a  Sonderbund  (Special  Federation),  and  defied  the 
federal  authority.  They  had  more  than  the  moral 
support  of  Austria,  as  well  as  a  fervent  papal  benedic- 
tion, but  their  brave  troops  were  quickly  scattered  by 
the  brilliant  federal  leader,  and  the  Jesuits  had  to  be 
abandoned. 

From  that  date,  1848,  the  Radicals — far  more  anti- 
clerical than  the  earlier  middle-class  Liberals — have 
maintained  an  overwhelming  strength  in  Switzerland. 
It  has  been  their  constant  aim  to  change  the  decentra- 
lised federalism  of  the  country  into  a  strong  centralised 
government.  Knowing  that  their  power  was  now 
hopelessly  restricted  to  certain  cantons  of  a  more 
backward  character  (as  I  will  show),  the  Catholics 
stoutly  resisted  the  Radical  constitution  of  1848.  They 
have  had  the  support  of  Swiss  Conservatives,  who 
resent  the  centralising  tendency,  and  even  of  some 
non-German  Radicals,  who  see  in  it  a  process  of 
Germanisation ;  but  the  country  (while  repeatedly 
rejecting,  by  its  Referendum,  political  and  economic 
proposals  of  the  Radicals)  has  maintained  the  anticleri- 
cals  in  overwhelming  strength  and  contemptuously 
overridden  the  Catholics.  In  the  Stande  Rat  (a 
federal  council  to  which  two  deputies  are  sent  from 
each  canton)  the  Catholics  have,  of  course,  been  able 
to  keep  a  powerful  minority,  though  its  proportion  is 
less  than  their  supposed  percentage   in  the  country. 


252  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

But  in  the  National  Rat,  the  great  popular  house  to 
which  one  deputy  is  returned,  by  general  election,  for 
every  20,000  citizens,  the  Radicals  have  maintained 
a  majority  far  exceeding  the  joint  bodies  of  Liberals, 
Conservatives  and  Catholics.  While  in  the  Bundes 
Rat,  the  supreme  federal  executive,  composed  of  seven 
members  elected  by  the  national  assembly,  only  one 
Catholic  and  one  Protestant  Conservative  have  found 
a  place  since  it  was  set  up  in  1848 ! 

In  face  of  this  political  impotence  of  the  Catholics 
under  one  of  the  most  democratic  constitutions  of  the 
world  the  reader  will  turn  with  some  interest  to  the 
analysis  of  their  census  figures.  According  to  the 
latest  enumeration  (1900)  they  number  no  less  than 
1.397.664  in  a  total  population  of  3,315,443,  or  416 
per  cent,  of  the  whole.  It  seems  hardly  necessary  to 
prove  that  here  the  census  figures  have  no  more  than 
their  usual  worth,  but  we  have  to  try  to  ascertain  the 
real  situation  that  lies  behind  them.  It  is  to  be  noted, 
in  the  first  place,  that,  as  in  Germany,  even  the  census 
figures  betray  a  considerable  leakage.  The  exact  dis- 
proportion of  Catholic  and  non-Catholic  birth-rate 
is  not  discoverable,  and  I  will  only  assume  that  the 
Catholic  peasants  of  the  forest  cantons,  and  of  Lucerne, 
Friburg,  Valais  and  Ticino  are  obedient  to  their 
Church's  command  to  lay  no  restriction  on  the  birth- 
rate, while  the  Radical  workers  have  not  the  same 
scruple.  Hence,  in  a  country  that  is  more  than  one- 
half  Protestant  we  should  find  much  the  same  rise  in 
the  Catholic  percentage  as  we  found  reason  to  expect 
in  Germany. 

As  in  the  case  of  Germany,  we  look  in  vain  for  such 
an  increase.  Again  a  fervent  Catholic  writer  comes 
to  my  support,  and  I  will  take  the  earlier  figures  from 
his  pages.  In  his  "  Die  Katholische  Kirche  in  der 
Schweiz"  (1902),  Dr  A.   Biichi,  who  has  no  illusions 


SWITZERLAND  253 

in  regard  to  the  fortunes  of  his  Church,  observes  that 
"from  1850  to  1888  the  Catholic  percentage  remained 
stationary,  but  it  has  increased  by  1  per  cent,  in  the 
last  twelve  years."  In  1850  (the  same  figures  are 
found  in  Juraschek)  the  Catholics  formed  40*6  and 
the  Protestants  59*3  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  I  find 
that  in  1870  the  Catholics  still  formed  exactly  40*6 
per  cent,  though  the  Protestants  had  fallen  to  58*2. 
In  1880  the  Catholics  were  40*8,  and  at  the  census 
of  1888  were  40*57  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  In  the 
forty  years  they  had  lost  the  whole  advantage  of  their 
higher  birth-rate,  and  all  the  advantage  that  a  large 
Catholic  immigration  should  have  given  them.  The 
latter  advantage  alone  was  considerable.  Of  the 
230,000  foreigners  resident  in  Switzerland  in  1888 
some  150,000  were  (calculating  in  the  way  we  did  in 
regard  to  American  immigrants)  Roman  Catholics. 

By  the  end  of  the  century  the  number  of  resident 
foreigners  rose  to  392,896 — more  than  a  tenth  of  the 
population  of  Switzerland — and  here  we  have  the 
explanation  of  the  small  increase  of  the  Catholic  per- 
centage. Biichi  observes  that  his  coreligionists  have 
grown  most  in  the  frontier  cantons,  and  adds  :  "  The 
reason  is  obvious  enough — because  they  receive  most 
immigrants  from  exclusively  Catholic  lands."  Juras- 
chek also  assigns  the  increase  to  "the  extraordinarily 
large  immigration  from  neighbouring  Catholic  lands." 
The  problem  of  the  immigrant  is  a  very  serious  one 
in  Switzerland,  and  it  greatly  affects  our  question, 
since  at  least  two-thirds  of  them  are  Roman  Catholic. 
Instead  of  being  surprised  that  the  Catholic  percentage 
rises  o#9  in  half-a-century,  we  see  at  once  that  it  be- 
trays a  serious  loss.  The  birth-rate  alone  should  have 
raised  it  at  least  2  per  cent.  Immigration  (bringing 
at  least  280,000  Catholics  to  120,000  Protestants) 
should    have   raised  it  a  further  5  per   cent.     There 


254  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

has  evidently  been  a  loss  of  at  least  200,000  on  the 
census  figures  alone.  And  as  the  Old  Catholics  (now 
numbering  about  40,000)  are  wrongly  included  in  the 
Catholic  total,  they  must  be  transferred  to  the  state- 
ment of  its  loss.  Their  whole  existence  is  a  protest 
against  Vaticanism. 

A  glance  at  the  summary  headings  of  the  census 
results  will  make  the  matter  more  secure.  In  the 
oldest  Catholic  provinces  the  percentage  has  sunk  as 
follows  in  the  last  half  century  : — Lucerne,  98*8  to  916, 
Uri,  99-9  to  96*4,  Schwyz,  99*6  to  96 6,  Obwalden  and 
Nidwalden,  99*9  to  98*3,  Zug,  99^3  to  93'3,  Solothurn, 
88*4  to  68'8,  Friburg,  87*9  to  853,  Ticino,  100  to  947, 
Valais,  994  to  97"8,  Inner  Appenzell,  99*6  to  939. 
In  other  words,  throughout  Catholic  Switzerland  there 
has  been  a  continuous  and  remarkable  leakage.  This 
fall  is  compensated  by  a  rise  in  percentage  in  the 
Protestant  and  mixed  cantons — Glarus,  Geneva,  Bale, 
Vaud  and  Berne.  It  is  only  this  enormous  immigra- 
tion of  French,  Austrian  and  Italian  Catholics,  across 
the  respective  frontiers,  that  has  concealed  the  great 
leakage. 

So  far  I  have  proceeded  on  the  census  figures,  but 
the  reader  will  hardly  need  reminding  that  they  merit 
little  confidence.  The  political  fortunes  of  Catholicism 
show  this  clearly  enough.  Dr  Biichi  draws  the  at- 
tention of  his  coreligionists  to  their  real  position,  in 
a  brief  and  painful  confession.  He  reminds  them  that, 
while  they  are  supposed  to  number  nearly  half  the 
population,  they  have  only  34  representatives  in  147 
(23  per  cent.)  in  the  National  Rat,  15  in  44  (34  per 
cent.)  in  the  Stande  Rat,  and  1  in  7  in  the  Bundes 
Rat.  Of  335  Swiss  journals  the  Roman  Catholics 
have  only  49  (or  15  per  cent.),  and  of  54  political 
dailies  he  complains  that  they  control  only  9.  "  It 
is  clear,"  he  says,  "that  the  Catholics  are  much  be- 


SWITZERLAND  255 

hind,  and  they  should  endeavour  to  improve  their 
position  in  Parliament  and  Press."  He  quite  admits 
that  a  proportion  of  the  nominal  Catholics  are  Liberals, 
but  does  not  seem  to  see,  or  care  to  confess,  that  the 
proportion  is  very  large,  and  fully  explains  their 
abnormal  situation.  I  will  borrow  from  his  pages 
one  incident  that  will  suffice  to  show  this.  Ticino,  the 
Italian  canton  which  was  annexed  at  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  is  described  as  almost  ex- 
clusively Catholic.  But  throughout  the  seventies  and 
eighties  the  Radicals  showed  great  power  in  the  canton, 
and  waged  incessant  war  on  the  Catholic  Conservatives. 
In  1890  the  clericals  tampered  with  the  electoral 
system,  in  order  to  retain  their  waning  influence,  and 
there  was  a  sanguinary  conflict.  Proportional  repre- 
sentation was  then  introduced,  and  it  has  had  the 
effect  of  sending  them  alternately  to  power.  As  the 
Radicals  are  pronouncedly  anticlerical,  and  the  priests 
sternly  denounce  their  party,  we  see  what  this  means 
as  to  the  religious  feelings  of  the  inhabitants  of  Ticino. 
Yet  in  the  census  of  1900  the  Canton  was  returned  as 
having  135,177  Roman  Catholics  out  of  a  total  popu- 
lation of  138,000! 

The  reader  who  has  any  lingering  regard  for  census 
declarations  will  do  well  to  consider  this  closely. 
Ticino  is,  in  fact,  a  bit  of  Lombardy,  and  its  sturdy 
workers  have  all  the  Radicalism  of  the  Milanese.  Its 
chief  town,  Lugano,  is  a  notorious  centre  of  Italian 
Socialism  and  Freethought.  At  the  disputed  local 
election  of  1890,  when  the  Radicals  returned  35 
deputies  to  jj  clericals,  the  total  Radical  vote  was 
only  600  less  than  the  Catholic  (12,166  to  12,783). 
We  must  not  indeed  imagine  that  the  peasantry  and 
the  women  are  divided  in  anything  like  the  same 
proportion,  but  the  clean  division  of  the  educated 
adult  males  is  significant. 


256     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Nor  may  we  assume  that  the  nominal  Catholics  are 
everywhere  so  really  divided  into  faithful  and  seceders 
as  they  are  in  Ticino.  In  the  French  canton  of 
Valais,  no  doubt,  we  find  Catholicism  of  the  French 
type,  but  in  the  German  cantons  there  is  more  fidelity. 
How  far  that  is  due  to  their  greater  illiteracy  I  will 
forbear  to  inquire,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  the  Catholic 
cantons  lag  far  behind  the  Protestant  in  regard  to 
education.  Let  so  neutral  an  authority  as  The  States- 
man's Year  Book,  1908,  attest  the  fact  for  us.  "In  the 
north-eastern  cantons,"  it  says,  "  where  the  inhabitants 
are  mostly  Protestant,  the  proportion  of  the  school- 
attending  children  to  the  whole  population  is  1  to  5  ; 
in  the  half- Protestant  and  half-Catholic  cantons  it  is  1 
to  7  ;  and  in  the  entirely  Roman  Catholic  cantons  it 
is  1  to  9."  The  law  of  compulsory  education  is  not 
enforced  where  the  cantonal  authorities  are  Catholic. 
Over  these  large  masses  of  ignorant  peasants  the 
clergy  retain  considerable  control. 

Yet  the  slow  growth  of  education  is,  as  everywhere, 
enfeebling  the  authority  of  the  clergy.  The  hierarchy 
and  the  Vatican  have  long  imposed  on  their  followers, 
as  a  sacred  duty,  political  hostility  to  Liberals, 
Radicals  and  Socialists,  but  the  result  of  recent 
elections,  in  spite  of  the  usual  division  of  the  progres- 
sive forces,  and  an  alliance  of  Conservative  Protestants 
with  the  Catholics,  shows  a  remarkable  impotence. 
At  the  general  election  of  1899  the  cantons  returned 
to  the  National  Assembly  86  Radicals,  9  Socialists, 
19  Liberals  (Whigs)  and  only  33  Catholic  and  other 
Conservatives.  In  1902  a  number  of  the  expelled 
French  monks  removed  to  Switzerland,  and  were 
summarily  ordered  to  quit  by  the  National  Assembly. 
In  spite  of  the  intense  Catholic  indignation,  the 
elections  of  that  year  returned  97  Radicals,  25  Liberals, 
9  Socialists  and  only  35  Clericals  and  Conservatives. 


SWITZERLAND  257 

A  further  opportunity  was  then  afforded  to  the 
Catholics  on  account  of  the  increasing  split  among  the 
progressives.  The  Radicals  and  Socialists  quarrelled, 
mainly  on  the  military  question.  In  the  elections  of 
1905  the  Socialists  lost  seven  seats  (though  their  two 
deputies  represented  70,000  votes),  but  the  Catholics 
failed  to  profit  by  the  quarrel. 

The  electors  to  the  Swiss  National  Rat  are  nearly 
one-fourth  (23 -5  per  cent.)  of  the  entire  population. 
Setting  aside  the  women,  children  and  foreigners, 
they  represent  the  substantial  body  of  the  nation.  It 
must  not  therefore  be  imagined  that  there  are  large 
numbers  of  unenfranchised  Catholic  men  who  would 
alter  the  Catholic  representation  if  they  had  the  vote. 
In  no  country  but  France  are  there  so  few  without  a 
vote.  The  plain  fact  is  that  only  a  fifth  of  the  men 
of  Switzerland  vote  Catholic,  though  the  Catholic 
Church  makes  pressing  appeals  for  better  representa- 
tion in  the  Rat.  It  is  surely  plain  that,  as  in  Ticino — 
as  in  Italy  and  Spain — a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
nominal  Catholics  are  really  defaulters.  The  number 
I  cannot  pretend  to  determine,  but  we  may  at  least 
double  the  loss  that  the  census  figures  themselves 
betrayed,  and  put  the  Church's  loss  in  Switzerland 
in  the  last  half  century  at  400,000.  If  the  Church  pre- 
fers to  regard  half  of  these  as  merely  "  bad  Catholics," 
the  spectacle  of  her  entire  political  impotence  will 
remain  a  sufficient  indication  of  profound  decay  to 
the  social  observer. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  GERMANIC  WORLD— BELGIUM 

IN  the  course  01  this  essay  the  reader  will  have 
observed  that  the  fortunes  of  Catholicism  in 
recent  times  have  been  largely  determined  by 
a  great  law  of  modern  political  development.  The 
nineteenth  century  opened  with  the  rise  of  a  political 
party,  the  Liberals,  that  was  destined  to  begin  the 
undoing  of  Rome.  Through  its  rise  the  countries 
that  had  escaped  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth 
century  were  now  washed  by  a  fresh  wave  of  human- 
ism, and  the  protest  against  Rome  that  followed  was, 
in  the  spirit  of  the  time,  bound  to  have  a  political 
character.  Power  passed  largely  from  autocratic 
princes  to  parliaments ;  and  the  new  parliaments 
represented  the  educated  middle  class.  In  Catholic 
countries,  therefore,  the  earlier  part  of  the  century 
was  conspicuously  occupied  with  a  struggle  of 
bourgeois  and  priests.  The  uneducated  workers  looked 
on  with  little  discernment.  The  Liberal  principles 
of  education  and  enfranchisement  at  length  brought 
into  political  existence  a  fresh  body,  far  larger  than 
the  Liberals  and,  as  was  quickly  discovered,  antag- 
onistic to  it  on  economic  issues.  The  century  ends, 
therefore,  with  a  struggle  of  Radicals  or  Socialists 
with  the  middle-class  Liberals.  And  in  the  division 
of  their  forces  clericals  and  Conservatives  here  and 
there  steal  back  to  power,  or  even,  at  times,  secure 
the  support  of  their  old  enemies  for  the  purpose  of 
controlling  the  emancipated  Caliban. 

In  the  case  of  Belgium  we  have  a  very  clear  illus- 

258 


BELGIUM  259 

tration  of  the  effect  of  this  political  evolution  upon  the 
fortunes  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  The  clerical 
writer  not  infrequently  adduces  Belgium  as  a  country 
in  which  the  anticlerical  forces  have  been  fairly 
beaten,  and  the  Catholics  have  again  secured  an 
unshakable  domination.  The  facile  reader  is  led  to 
imagine  that  there  Catholicism  has  recovered  the 
ground  it  lost  in  the  troubled  days  of  revolution,  and 
now  smiles  at  every  effort  to  dislodge  it.  Indeed,  as 
I  have  everywhere  insisted  on  the  significance  of  the 
political  powerlessness  of  the  clergy,  I  must  surely 
allow  that  their  remarkable  power  in  modern  Belgium 
is  a  proportionate  testimony  in  their  favour.  But  I 
am  very  far  from  being  prepared  to  make  any  such 
admission.  The  Belgian  Church  has  suffered  the 
most  grievous  losses,  and  its  decay  has  proceeded  no 
less  rapidly  during  the  last  thirty-seven  years,  in  which 
it  has  controlled  the  majority  in  the  Chambre.  The 
fact  will  be  placed  beyond  dispute  by  the  very  positive 
indications  I  will  give ;  and  the  paradox  is  simply 
explained. 

That  Belgium  is  Catholic  at  all  is  a  mere  matter  of 
political  history.  At  the  time  of  the  Reformation  the 
Netherlands  were  in  the  hands  of  Philip  of  Spain. 
Belgians  and  Dutch  listened  eagerly  enough  to  the 
appeals  of  the  Reformers,  but  the  merciless  procedure 
of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  and  the  ferocious  troops 
of  Alva  brought  stronger  arguments  into  the  theatre. 
The  geographical  law  of  the  Reformation  held  good. 
The  northern  provinces  successfully  rebelled,  and 
Protestant  Holland  will  be  dealt  with  in  the  next 
chapter.  The  southern  provinces  were  retained  for 
Spain,  and  Protestantism  was  utterly  eradicated. 
They  then  reverted  to  Austria,  and,  as  part  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  were  equally  guarded  from 
heresy.    At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  they 


260     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

were  overrun  by  the  French  troops,  and  the  germs 
of  Liberalism  were,  as  usual,  planted  in  the  educated 
class.  Through  the  subsequent  struggle  I  need  not 
follow  them.  At  the  resettlement  of  1815  Holland 
and  Belgium  were  united  again  by  the  Council  of 
Vienna. 

From  1 81 5  to  1830  the  Church  prospered,  and 
suffered  little  from  Liberalism.  Catholics  and  Liberals 
were  associated  in  a  common  hatred  of  the  Dutch, 
and  their  own  struggle  was  deferred  until  the  Dutch 
rule  should  be  shaken  off.  The  priests  naturally 
resented  Protestant  control,  though  it  went  little 
beyond  building  schools  and  enacting  liberty  of 
religion  ;  and  the  Catholic  body  was  itself  leavened, 
to  some  extent,  by  Liberal  Catholic  followers  of  De 
Lamennais  and  the  French  democrats.  The  Liberals 
were  patriotic  enough  to  chafe  under  a  foreign  rule, 
and  there  were  restrictions  on  the  press  and  freedom 
of  speech  that  hindered  their  advance.  In  1830  they 
joined  forces,  and  drove  out  the  Dutch.  The  Re- 
volution has  been  called  a  "sacristy  revolution,"  and 
certainly  it  was  in  substance  a  clerical  revolt  against 
Dutch  efforts  to  introduce  education  (both  for  priests 
and  laity)  and  to  assure  liberty  of  cults.  But  its 
leaders  were  Deistic  or  Agnostic  Liberals,  and  no 
sooner  was  the  kingdom  of  Belgium  set  up,  under 
Leopold  of  Saxe-Coburg,  and  a  constitution  (on 
English  Whig  lines)  framed,  than  the  struggle  of 
clerical  and  anticlerical  began. 

The  ecclesiastical  question  had  been  "settled"  by 
releasing  the  Church  from  State  control,  while  grant- 
ing the  clergy  full  State  support,  the  care  of  the 
cemeteries,  and  a  number  of  other  privileges.  Besides 
the  two  State  universities,  at  Ghent  and  Liege,  each 
party  now  founded  one  for  itself — the  Catholics  at 
Louvain,  the  Liberals  at  Brussels.     Under  the  new 


BELGIUM  261 

parliamentary  system,  with  a  moderate  middle-class 
franchise,  the  Liberals  felt  their  power,  and  soon 
began  to  chafe.  For  ten  years  the  shrewd  king  held 
the  parties  together,  and  there  was  concern  enough 
about  their  political  and  financial  stability  to  overrule 
other  matters.  Ministries  were  mixed  and  impartial. 
In  the  early  forties,  however,  the  Catholics  became 
anxious  about  the  rapid  spread  of  Liberalism,  and 
attempted  to  force  a  law  that  there  should  be  no 
elementary  education  without  religious  instruction. 
The  two  parties  now  drew  up  their  political  forces  in 
open  hostility,  and  the  great  electoral  battle  opened, 
The  king  disliked  the  Liberals,  as  most  kings  did. 
and  set  up  a  Catholic  ministry  in  1845.  They  at- 
tempted to  meddle  now  with  secondary  education,  and 
provoked  another  fierce  Liberal  agitation.  In  1847 
the  Liberals  came  to  power,  and  they  held  office  for 
twenty-seven  out  of  the  succeeding  thirty-seven  years. 
The  true  religious  condition  of  Belgium  is  so  very 
clearly  revealed  by  its  political  life  that  I  must  continue 
to  tell  the  story  in  greater  detail  than  I  have  done  in 
the  case  of  other  countries.  On  census  returns 
Belgium  is  wholly  Catholic.  There  are  only  some 
20,000  Protestants  and  4000  Jews  within  its  frontiers. 
Yves  Guyot  tells  that  Protestantism  has  made  remark- 
able progress  of  recent  years  in  certain  districts. 
There  are  now  900  Protestants  at  Charleroi,  where 
there  were  formerly  not  half-a-dozen.  There  are  500 
at  Junet,  he  says,  and  8000  in  the  Borinage.  How- 
ever the  best  authorities  put  their  number  at  less 
than  20,000,  and  that  is  a  negligible  quantity  in  a 
population  of  7,160,547.  Our  task  is  rather  to  set 
aside  the  census  declarations  and  employ  more  sincere 
tests  of  conviction.  The  reader  may  remember,  from 
our  first  chapter,  how  at  the  census  of  1871  only 
85,000  of  the  inhabitants  of  France  described  them- 


262     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

selves  as  of  no  religion  ;  and  how  five  years  later 
the  number  grew  to  7,000,000.  There  had,  of  course, 
been  no  such  extensive  change  of  conviction  within 
five  years.  We  shall  see  that  the  Belgian  census 
results  are  on  a  level  with  the  French  results  of 
1871. 

From  1846  to  1878  the  Liberals  had  almost  un- 
broken power.  I  must  warn  the  reader  at  once  that 
that  does  not  imply  a  very  large  number  of  seceders, 
but  merely  a  preponderance  of  Liberals  among  the 
educated  minority.  Even  when  the  limit  of  taxation 
for  the  right  to  vote  was  lowered  in  1848,  the  electors 
were  only  79,000  in  4,000,000.  The  vast  majority 
of  the  people  were  utterly  illiterate  and  densely 
ignorant.  As  late  as  1866  the  people  of  East  and 
West  Flanders,  amongst  whose  sluggish  peasantry 
the  clergy  still  find  their  chief  support,  were  illiterate 
(over  the  age  of  seven)  to  the  extent  of  50  per  cent. 
Until  the  end  of  the  century,  therefore,  the  electoral 
struggle  represents  a  contest  of  less  than  a  hundredth 
part  of  the  nation,  and  may  be  dismissed  briefly.1 

In  their  first  term  of  office,  from  1847  to  1855,  the 
Liberals  pressed  the  work  of  education,  thereby 
incurring  not  only  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  clergy, 
but  a  good  deal  of  unpopularity  on  account  of  the 
increase  in  taxation.  They  were  beaten  in  1855, 
and  the  clericals,  who  had  used  no  gentle  means  to 
influence  votes,  sought  their  revenge.  In  particular, 
they  attempted  to  recover  control  of  the  charities  that 
had  been  secularised  in  1830,  and,  after  a  fiery  conflict, 
a  Bill  was  passed  to  that  effect.  Such  an  issue  as 
this,  and  the  standing  issue  of  the  school,  show  plainly 

1  The  full  details  may  be  read  conveniently  in  Seignobos's 
"Histoire  politique  de  l'Europe  contemporaine" ;  Wilmotte's  "La 
Belgique  morale  et  politique"  (1902),  and  Count  Goblet  d'Alviella's 
"La  Representation  Proportionelle  "  (1900). 


BELGIUM  263 

enough  that  it  was  a  battle  of  Catholics  and  non- 
Catholics.  In  fact  a  third  issue  was  now  raised,  of 
a  still  more  significant  character.  The  religious 
orders  were  accumulating  enormous  wealth,  and 
the  clergy  wanted  to  have  a  law  passed  to  secure  it 
against  the  obvious  designs  of  the  Liberals.  But  the 
communal  elections  now  ran  so  strongly  in  favour  of 
the  Liberals  that  the  king  was  obliged  to  recognise 
the  feeling  of  the  nation,  and  recall  them  to  power 
in  1857.  The  general  election  gave  them  seventy 
deputies  to  the  clericals'  twenty-five. 

The  electorate  was  so  entirely  with  them  that  they 
retained  office,  in  defiance  of  the  Church,  for  thirteen 
years.  But  the  next  phase  of  the  political  develop- 
ment now  set  in.  Young  Liberals  turned  into 
Radicals,  and  young  Radicals  began  to  listen  to 
Karl  Marx.  The  older  Liberals  refused  to  extend  the 
suffrage,  and  the  clergy  gladly  watched  the  dissensions 
in  the  enemy's  camp.  Seignobos  protests,  indeed, 
that  the  Belgian  Liberals  were  never  more  than  "a 
coalition  of  enemies  to  Catholicism,"  and  were  bound 
to  break  up  when  it  came  to  constructive  legislation. 
At  all  events  there  was  much  cross-voting  and  abstain- 
ing at  the  1870  election.  The  Catholics  secured 
seventy-two  seats  and  the  Liberals  only  thirty-five. 
But  the  triumph  was  not  great,  from  our  present 
point  of  view.  The  Liberals  actually  secured  42,058 
votes,  while  35,501  votes  gave  a  majority  to  the 
clericals  (D'Alviella) ;  and  many  of  the  latter  votes 
were  given  by  Radicals  and  discontented  Flemish 
Liberals. 

The  Kulturkampf  in  Germany  and  the  occupation 
of  Rome  put  fresh  political  life  into  the  Catholics,  but 
the  educated  feeling  of  the  country  was  against  them. 
Their  opponents  combined  again,  and  greatly  reduced 
their  majority  in  1874.     Their  ministers  were  Catholics 


2C4     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

of  a  Liberal  shade,  and  were  discreet,  but  the  clergy 
flung  themselves  into  politics  with  all  that  disdain 
of  lay  scruples  that  their  higher  ideals  seemed  to 
them  to  justify.  "Corruption  and  intimidation  had 
reached  such  a  pitch  at  this  time  in  the  electorate," 
says  Wilmotte,  "that  even  the  clerical  ministry  felt 
the  need  of  a  vigorous  remedy."  He  quotes  a 
Catholic  Senator,   Limpens,  saying  afterwards  : 

"Who  does  not  remember  the  scandalous  scenes 
that  were  witnessed  on  election  days — voters  marched 
up  to  the  poll  in  brigades,  and  compelled  to  show 
their  votes  to  a  controller  before  putting  them  in  the 
urn,  and  then  the  revenge  taken  on  those  who  voted 
according  to  their  consciences." 

The  Liberals  and  Radicals  secured  a  law  ensuring 
the   secrecy   of  the    ballot,    and    in    1878    they   won 
seventy    seats,    to    their    opponents'    sixty.       Their 
tenure  of  office — the  last  they  have  had — lasted  six 
years,  and  brought   out  afresh  the  growth  of  anti- 
Roman  feeling.     They  passed  a  law  of  obligatory  and 
secular  education.     The  clergy  responded  with  stern 
excommunication  of  any  parents  whose  children  at- 
tended their  schools  and  teachers  who  taught  in  them, 
and  set  up  sectarian  schools  in   face  of  them.     The 
issue  showed  plainly  that  the  anticlericals  were  not  now 
a  mere  handful  of  bourgeois,  who  were  wealthy  enough 
to  have  a  vote.      After  five  years'  scattering  of  ecclesi- 
astical lightning  and  building  of  schools  there  were 
still  in  (1884)  346,000  children  in  the  national  schools 
and   500,000  in    the  Catholic  schools  (chiefly  among 
the  Flemish  peasants).      The  government   appealed 
to  the  Vatican  to  check  the  violence  of  the  clergy, 
and    withdrew    their    representative    when  the    Pope 
refused   to   act,  and    suppressed  the    salaries   of  400 
priests.      It  is   quite  futile  to  represent   the  struggle 
as  any  other  than  one  of  Catholic  and  non-Catholic. 


BELGIUM  2G5 

But  the  old  division  of  the  progressives  on  the 
franchise  question  returned,  the  increased  taxation 
was  resented,  and  at  the  elections  of  1884  the 
Catholics  secured  sixty-six  seats,  and  the  Liberals 
only  three.  Did  that  mean  that  Belgium  was  still 
Catholic  at  heart,  and  only  needed  to  be  roused? 
We  glance  at  the  votes,  and  find — so  absurd  was 
the  Belgian  system — that  the  three  Liberal  seats 
were  won  with  22,117  votes,  while  the  Catholics 
won  sixty-six  seats  with  27,930  votes. 

On  that  feeble  turnover,  the  Catholics  entered  upon 
the  period  of  office  that  they  still  maintain.  They 
at  once  subsidised  the  sectarian  schools,  ruined  the 
national  schools,  and  made  religious  instruction  part 
of  the  curriculum  in  all.  The  clergy  turned  with  zeal 
to  social  activity  among  the  workers,  and  every  effort 
was  made  to  keep  the  hated  Liberals  out  of  power. 
In  spite  of  all  this  the  Liberals  quickly  won  back  fifty 
seats.  In  the  partial  elections  that  followed  in  1886, 
1888  and  1890,  only  a  few  hundred  voters  separated 
the  total  number  of  their  supporters.  In  1892  the 
Liberals  won  thirty-four  seats  with  52,198  votes; 
the  Catholics  secured  sixty-eight  seats  with  58,000 
votes.  The  ridiculous  and  unjust  nature  of  the 
electoral  system  was  now  too  patent  to  be  tolerated, 
and  in  1893  tne  ^aw  °f  manhood  suffrage  was  passed. 

The  result  of  this  change  is  of  peculiar  interest  to 
our  inquiry.  It  raised  the  number  of  electors  from 
130,000  to  1,350,000;  and  in  a  country  where  the 
political  division  coincides  with  that  of  religion  the 
electoral  division  should  prove  informing  for  our 
purpose.  Hitherto  we  have  seen  little  more  than  the 
division  of  middle-class  opinion.  From  1894  onward 
we  get  the  decision,  on  issues  that  are  so  persistently 
clerical,  of  the  vast  majority  of  the  adult  males  of 
Belgium. 


266     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Unhappily,  any  expectation  of  that  kind  must  be 
largely  disappointed.  The  second  phase  of  political 
development  had  by  this  time  proceeded  far,  and 
the  lines  of  cleavage  of  the  contending  parties  were 
materially  altered.  We  have  seen  in  so  many  cases 
(Spain,  etc.)  how  the  rise  of  a  more  advanced  party 
has  modified  the  attitude  of  the  Liberals  that  we 
are  quite  prepared  to  understand  it.  In  Belgium 
the  rapid  spread  of  Socialism  has  alarmed  the  middle 
class  to  such  an  extent  that  they  now  often  vote  for 
the  clerical  candidate,  as  the  less  dangerous  of  two 
enemies.  M.  Wilmotte,  a  Liberal  writer,  and  a  keen 
opponent  of  Socialism,  insists  sadly  on  this.  The 
Socialists,  he  declares,  now  secure  one-fifth  of  the 
whole  of  the  votes  at  a  general  election.  If  the 
system  of  plural  voting  be  abolished,  he  fears  they 
"may  well  turn  out  to  the  larger  half."  In  the  face 
of  this  menace  to  their  economic  interests  the  haute 
boiirgeoisie  has  dropped  its  Liberalism,  and  now  "elle 
vote  pour  Dieu."  These  are,  it  must  be  remembered, 
the  words  of  one  of  the  haute  bourgeoisie,  and  they 
are  entirely  just.  The  danger  was  so  clearly  per- 
ceived when  manhood  suffrage  was  granted — granted, 
obviously,  to  disarm  revolution — that  its  effect  was 
moderated  by  a  complex  system  of  plural  voting. 
The  father  of  a  family,  the  possessor  of  a  certain 
amount  of  wealth,  or  the  man  who  had  had  secondary 
education,  was  granted  an  additional  vote.  The 
1,350,000  electors  found  themselves  possessed  of 
2,066,000  votes.  The  Conservative  vote,  in  other 
words,  was  artificially  multiplied ;  and  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  the  Belgian  nobility  and  landowners  are 
Catholic,  and  the  haute  bourgeoisie  now  turning  to 
support  the  Church,  the  result  has  to  be  examined 
with  great  discretion.  The  Catholic  vote  no  longer 
stands  for  so  many  individual  Catholics. 


BELGIUM  267 

With  these  reserves  in  mind  we  turn  with  interest 
to  the  electoral  battles  since  1893.  In  the  very  next 
year  the  Liberals  were  apparently  annihilated.  The 
Catholics  secured  104  seats,  the  Liberals  20  and  the 
Socialists  28.  When  one  regards  only  the  number 
of  deputies — the  only  figures,  unfortunately,  that  are 
commonly  quoted — it  looks  as  if  the  broadening  of 
the  franchise  proved  that  Belgium  was  really  Catholic. 
In  truth,  it  showed  precisely  the  reverse.  The  new 
electoral  system  retained  all  the  defects  of  the  old  in 
the  distribution  of  seats,  and  we  must  consider  only 
the  number  of  votes.  In  spite  of  the  plural  vote,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  at  second  ballots  the  Liberal 
usually  voted  for  the  clerical  against  the  Socialist, 
the  Catholics  obtained  only  900,000  votes,  while  the 
Liberals  had  350,000  and  the  Socialists  450,000.  At 
the  partial  elections  of  1896  and  1898  the  Catholics 
gained  further  seats,  but  actually  lost  votes.  They 
carried  the  whole  of  Brussels  with  89,000  votes,  while 
40,000  Liberal  and  73,000  Radical-Socialist  votes 
went  without  a  seat.  To  complete  the  absurdity,  the 
provincial  elections  were  held  just  after  the  general 
election,  and  the  Liberals  carried  every  seat  at  Brus- 
sels. In  1898  the  same  farcical  results  were  seen. 
In  Hainault  the  Socialists  won  20  seats  with  220,000 
votes  ;  the  Catholics  4  seats  with  1 24,000  votes  ;  the 
Liberals  2  seats  with  109,000  votes.  In  a  word,  a 
Liberal  deputy  in  Parliament  represented  76,000 
votes,  a  Socialist  deputy  6,000  and  a  clerical  deputy 
1 1,000. 

A  fiery  agitation  still  went  on  over  the  injustice  of 
this  electoral  system,  and  the  king  intervened  once 
more.  In  spite  of  the  violent  opposition  of  Catholics 
(who  profited  so  much  by  the  actual  system)  and 
Socialists  (who  demanded  adult  suffrage  and  single 
vote),  a  law  of  proportional  representation  was  passed 


268     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

in  1899.  The  Catholic  ministry  contrived  to  enfeeble 
the  reform  somewhat  in  their  fixing  of  the  quorum  and 
grouping  of  districts,  but  it  did  much  toward  clearing 
the  expression  of  popular  feeling  at  elections.  The 
plural  vote  remained — 350,000  having  two  votes  and 
250,000  having  three  votes — with  many  other  limita- 
tions, but  the  result  was  interesting.  The  Catholic 
group  sank  to  86  ;  the  Liberals  and  Radicals  secured 
33  seats  and  the  Socialists  32. x  The  number  of  votes 
that  each  group  of  deputies  represented  was,  accord- 
ing to  M.  Wilmotte :  Catholics  995,000,  Liberals  and 
Radicals  497,000,  and  Socialists  467,000 — 964,000 
anticlerical  and  995,000  clerical.  In  other  words, 
the  men  of  Belgium  were  found  to  be  seceders  from 
Catholicism  to  the  extent  of  at  least  one-half.  We 
must  remember  that  the  double  and  triple  vote  would 
give  only  the  slightest  increase  to  the  Socialist  vote, 
and  would  greatly  swell  the  Catholic  total.  It  is  quite 
safe  to  say  that  half  the  men  of  Belgium,  at  least,  are 
anticlerical. 

And  this  proportion  has  been  more  than  maintained 
in  subsequent  elections.  I  have  worked  up  the  re- 
sults given  in  the  Belgian  journals  after  the  elections 
of  1902,  1904  and  1906,  and  find  that  the  Catholics  have 
steadily  lost  ground.  In  regard  to  the  number  of  their 
deputies  they  seemed  to  secure  a  great  triumph  in  1902, 
when  they  won  the  bulk  of  the  new-created  constitu- 
encies, and  raised  their  party  in  the  Chambre  to  ninety- 
six.  But — apart  from  the  fact  that  the  number  of 
deputies  still  did  not  tally  fairly  with  the  number  of 
voters — the  "triumph"  was  short-lived.  The  Catholics 
lost  three  seats  in  1904  (and  four  in  the  Senate)  and  four 
seats  in  1906,  so  that  their  majority  over  the  rising  op- 
position has  been  reduced  to  twelve.     But  it  is  the  votes 

1  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  I  am  speaking  throughout  of  the 
Chambre,  not  the  Senate- 


BELGIUM  269 

that  especially  claim  our  interest.  The  Belgian  elec- 
tions are  partial,  half  the  Chambre  retiring  every  two 
years.  I  therefore  add  together  the  total  figures  for 
1900  and  1902,  and  the  figures  for  1904  and  1906, 
in  order  to  get  the  expression  of  the  whole  electorate. 
In  the  first  case  the  Liberals,  Radicals  and  Socialists 
secured  974,725  votes,  and  the  Catholics  1,010,034. 
But  the  votes  cast  for  the  Christian  Democrats  (fol- 
lowers of  the  ex-Abbe  Daens,  bitterly  opposed  by  the 
Roman  Catholics)  numbered  more  than  50,000,  so 
that  the  clericals  had  really  a  minority  of  the  elector- 
ate. It  was  the  same  in  the  elections  of  1904  and 
1906.  The  Liberals,  Radicals  and  Socialists  obtained 
1,090,146  votes,  the  Catholics  1,125,189.  But  the 
Daensists  and  other  independent  candidates  polled 
56,000  votes,  and  again  put  the  Catholic  votes  in  the 
minority.  With  all  their  advantage  of  birth-rate, 
triple  votes  and  the  support  of  certain  Liberals,  the 
Catholic  vote  steadily  sinks  in  proportion  to  the  elector- 
ate. It  is  impossible  to  calculate  with  any  accuracy 
the  incidence  of  the  plural  vote,  but  (the  whole  aristo- 
cracy, for  instance,  voting  Catholic)  it  would  certainly 
favour  the  clericals.  We  may  with  complete  confi- 
dence say  that  more  than  one-half  of  the  men  of 
Belgium  are  anticlerical.  They  vote  for  the  group 
of  parties  whose  triumph  will  mean  the  disestablish- 
ment of  the  Church  and  the  secularisation  of  national 
life. 

Here  we  have  a  check  upon  the  census  returns,  of 
which  the  efficiency  can  hardly  be  questioned.  No 
one  who  has  lived  amongst  the  Catholics  of  Belgium 
— as  I  have  done  for  twelve  months — can  have  any 
illusion  as  to  the  religious  sentiments  of  the  Liberals 
and  Socialists.  A  very  few  of  them  may  return  to 
the  Church  when  death  approaches,  but  the  over- 
whelming  majority  are    irrecoverable  seceders   from 


270     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Catholicism.  To  support  their  political  authority  is 
regarded  as  a  deadly  sin — far  more  serious  than  the 
omission  of  mass.  Yet  of  the  men  of  the  country 
over  the  age  of  twenty-six  (only  a  small  minority  being 
unenfranchised,  besides  the  criminal  class)  more  than 
one-half  have  passed  to  these  anathematised  bodies 
and  quitted  the  Church.  To  what  extent  their  families 
are  with  them  in  the  rebellion  may  be  gathered  from 
the  fact  that  the  organisation  of  Socialist  children  in 
Belgium  is  twice  as  large  as  the  same  organisation  in 
Socialistic  Germany !  The  Freethinkers  of  Belgium 
also  carry  their  wives  and  children  with  them  to  a 
great  extent.  The  youth  of  the  country  (between  six- 
teen and  twenty-six)  is  notoriously  anticlerical  in  its 
adolescent  way,  at  least  in  the  towns  and  the  Walloon 
districts.  No  one  will  claim  that  the  women  and 
children  are  divided  in  anything  like  the  same  propor- 
tion as  the  men,  but  we  shall  be  well  within  the  mark 
if  we  say  that  of  the  7,000,000  inhabitants  of  Belgium 
to-day  some  2,500,000  stand  entirely  outside  the 
Catholic  Church. 

Nor  must  it  be  supposed  that  in  this  I  am  applying 
a  somewhat  stringent  test  and  denying  the  name  of 
Catholic  to  any  but  the  really  devout.  I  am  counting 
as  seceders  only  those  who  flout  the  most  solemn 
appeals  of  the  Church,  and  who  are  unlikely  even  to 
die  in  its  communion.  In  1893  I  was  sent  by  mv 
English  ecclesiastical  authorities  to  spend  a  year  in 
Belgium,  chiefly  to  follow  a  course  of  Oriental  lan- 
guages at  Louvain  University,  and  I  had  an  excep- 
tionally good  opportunity  to  study  its  religious  life. 
As  far  as  the  better-educated  class  is  concerned,  the 
Catholics  were  in  a  hopelessly  small  minority.  There 
were  four  universities  in  the  country.  Two  of  them 
— at  Ghent  and  Liege — are  the  old  State  universities 
for  the  north  and  south  of  the  country.    As  I  explained, 


BELGIUM  271 

the  Catholics  founded  a  sectarian  university  at  Louvain 
(or  Leuven)  in  Catholic  Flanders,  and  the  Liberals 
established  a  thoroughly  "Liberal"  university  at 
Brussels.  But  the  universities  of  Ghent  and  Liege 
are  hardly  less  Liberal,  and  Catholic  families  in  good 
circumstances  are  strictly  enjoined  to  send  their  young 
men  to  Louvain.  In  the  year  that  I  spent  there 
some  1500  to  1600  attended  its  courses.  This  was  a 
little  more  than  a  fourth  of  all  the  university  students 
of  the  country,  and  the  proportion  reflects  faithfully 
enough  the  proportion  of  normal  Catholics  in  the 
middle  class.  But  even  here  it  was  quite  evident  that 
at  least  one-third  were  merely  nominal  Catholics,  and 
the  Church  had  no  real  authority  over  them.  A 
Louvain  priest,  who  knew  them  well,  told  me  that 
about  a  third  of  them  did  not  go  to  mass  on  Sundays, 
and  it  needed  no  close  observation  to  discover  that 
the  clerical  officers  of  the  university  had  to  give  them 
a  loose  rein  in  order  to  retain  even  this  nominal 
fidelity.1 

Of  the  peasantry  and  the  working-class  I  naturally 
saw  little,  but  the  little  was  astonishing.  In  the 
Flemish  provinces  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
peasants — though  the  minority  is  larger  than  it  is 
sometimes  represented  to  be — are  still  Catholic.  The 
Flemings  are  of  a  more  bovine  character  than  the 
French-speaking  Walloons.  They  are  still  largely 
illiterate,  and,  even  when  literate,  read  little.  The 
superstitions  of  six  centuries  ago  linger  amongst  them 
to  a  remarkable  extent.  In  the  Flemish  towns, 
however,   Liberalism  has  quite  its  customary  propor- 

1  There  were  not  residential  colleges  (except  for  the  clergy),  as 
at  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  The  1500  lay  students  (of  law,  medicine, 
engineering,  brewing,  etc.)  lodged  as  they  pleased  in  the  town.  The 
reader  will,  if  he  cares,  find  a  fuller  account  of  my  experiences  in 
Belgium  in  my  "Twelve  Years  in  a  Monastery,"  ch.  vii. 


272     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

tion  of  the  middle  class,  and  Socialism  is  making  great 
progress  among  the  workers.  English  tourists  often 
form  their  estimate  of  the  religious  life  of  Belgian 
towns  on  the  picturesque  demonstrations  that  are  held 
in  the  streets  at  certain  festivals,  in  which  the  whole 
town  seems  to  be  absorbed.  I  took  part  in  one  at 
Louvain,  on  the  Fete  Dieu,  when  the  whole  body  of 
students  and  professors,  civic  dignitaries  and  notables, 
and  troops,  formed  an  imposing  procession  before  the 
Sacrament.  None  of  my  Belgian  colleagues  would 
have  hesitated  to  admit  that  at  least  one-third  of  the 
demonstrators  could  hardly  be  credited  with  a  belief 
in  the  Sacrament.  At  Hasselt,  where  a  miraculous 
statue  of  the  Virgin  in  the  charge  of  my  own  colleagues 
evoked  stupendous  demonstrations  of  piety  every  few 
years,  my  colleagues  freely  told  me  that  Liberal 
tradesmen  and  civic  officials  were  amongst  the  most 
zealous  promoters  of  the  pilgrimages — and  the  most 
ample  profiters  by  them. 

In  the  towns  we  were  commonly  insulted  in  terms 
that,  though  I  knew  little  Flemish,  were  expressive 
enough.  Our  shaven  polls  and  sandalled  feet  and 
quaint  brown  frocks — I  was  a  monk  of  the  Order  of 
St  Francis — rarely  failed  to  provoke  ridicule  in  the 
towns  and  an  embarrassing  adoration  in  the  country  ; 
the  gibes  of  the  young  and  the  prostrations  of  the  aged. 
Brussels  I  was  not  allowed  to  visit,  on  the  ground 
that  my  costume  would  provoke  too  lively  a  demon- 
stration in  that  Catholic  capital.  But  I  had  an  insight 
into  the  life  of  the  Walloon  district  that  told  me  much 
more  than  statistics  could  do,  and  fully  accords  with 
the  political  life. 

It  is  usually  said  that  in  Belgium  the  peasants  and 
the  nobles  are — as  in  Austria — Catholics,  the  pro- 
fessional and  tradesmen  Liberals,  and  the  artisans 
Socialists.     My  acquaintance — an  intimate  one — was 


BELGIUM  273 

with  the  Walloon  peasantry  (with  a  fair  sprinkling  of 
Flemish),  and  much  moderated  my  idea  of  their  fidelity. 
During  the  Easter  vacation  in  1894  I  spent  a  few 
weeks  in  a  monastery  near  Waterloo,  and  was  per- 
suaded to  assist  in  the  sacerdotal  work.  My  con- 
stituency included  a  distinguished  noble  family,  whose 
orthodoxy  I  have  no  reason  to  suspect,  and  a  very 
large  village,  together  with  a  good  deal  of  the  "  free 
lance  "  work  in  which  a  monk  is  indulged.  I  found 
that,  amongst  the  peasantry,  not  only  indifference,  but 
hostility,  to  religion  was  extremely  widespread.  Their 
clergy  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  keeping  them  to 
their  religious  duties,  and  several  hundred  (out  of,  if 
I  remember  rightly,  less  than  2000)  would  make  no 
Easter  communion  at  all.  I  found  men — not  vicious 
men  at  all — on  the  point  of  death  who  violently  refused 
to  see  their  parochial  clergy,  and  who  were  only  in- 
duced with  great  difficulty  to  receive  the  last  sacra- 
ments from  me.  From  my  then  point  of  view,  and 
after  experience  in  London,  the  spectacle  was 
appalling. 

There  can  be  no  question  whatever  that  at  least  a 
third  of  Belgium  is  lost  to  the  Church,  and  a  great 
deal  of  the  remainder  is  attached  by  bonds  so  frail 
that  the  future  is  certain  to  see  a  continuance  of  the 
loss.  The  peasantry  are  awakening ;  it  is  the  plaint 
of  some  Liberals — a  strange  reversal  of  history — that 
the  Church  itself  is  awakening  them,  and  that,  as  they 
awake,  they  are  caught  by  the  glitter  of  Socialism. 
Nominal  Catholicism  will  not  stand  the  strain.  Al- 
ready the  Socialist  party  polls  the  largest  vote  it  has 
in  any  country  (after  Finland),  in  proportion  to  the 
population,  and  the  Freethinkers,  under  the  eloquent 
Belgian  lawyer,  M.  Furnemont,  have  a  powerful 
party.  The  future  is  very  dark  for  the  Church.  It 
holds    its  tenure  of   authority    only   until    a  working 


274     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

agreement  is  made  between  the  Liberals  and  the 
Socialists,  or  until  the  latter  have  maintained  their 
growth  for  a  few  more  years.  Then  the  Belgian 
Church  will  break  up,  just  as  the  sister  Church  did 
in   France. 

And  finally,  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  undoing 
of  the  Belgian  Church  will  be  precisely  the  same  as 
one  of  the  main  reasons  for  its  downfall  in  France.  I 
refer  to  the  monastic  bodies.  For  more  than  half-a- 
century  they  have  drawn  hostile  looks  from  all  classes. 
It  is  about  fifty  years  since  the  anticlericals  first  began 
to  pay  alarming  attention  to  their  wealth.  The 
difficulty  of  assigning  any  owner  to  their  property — 
a  difficulty  that  inspires  whole  chapters  of  entertaining 
perplexity  in  their  canonists,  and  has  to  be  left  un- 
solved— seemed  to  offer  an  excellent  ground  for  State 
appropriation  without  the  shadow  of  injustice.  The 
Pope  (whose  decrees  I  have  quoted  in  the  chapter 
on  France)  at  once  instructed  the  monks  to  swear 
on  oath  that  "  notwithstanding  their  solemn  vow  of 
poverty  they  intended  from  the  first  to  acquire  the 
property  in  the  ordinary  way  of  civil  ownership."  The 
audacity  baffled  their  opponents,  but  the  deferring  of 
the  account  is  only  adding  to  its  length.  Wilmotte 
observes  that  the  landed  property  of  the  monks  and 
nuns  of  Liege  was  officially  valued  at  4,500,000 
francs  in  1866,  and  is  appraised  at  18,044,201  francs 
to-day.  Guyot  says  that  there  were  779  convents 
(with  11,968  inmates)  in  Belgium  in  1846,  and  2221 
convents  (with  37,684  inmates)  in  1900.  They  have 
730,000,000  francs'  worth  of  landed  property,  and 
their  furniture,  etc.,  is  valued  at  300,000,000;  while 
they  hold  1,030,000,000  francs'  worth  of  property 
through  prete-noms. 

Against  this  monstrous  accumulation  both  workers 
and  capitalists  have  a  rising  indignation.     They  know, 


BELGIUM  275 

too,  that  the  bulk  of  the  inmates  of  the  monasteries 
lead  idle  and  useless  lives,  and  the  support  of  most 
of  them  is  an  imposition  on  the  ignorant  peasantry  or 
a  futile  absorption  of  unwise  foundations.  I  will  only 
say  on  this  point  that,  if  my  close  acquaintance  with 
one  of  the  chief  monastic  bodies  in  Belgium  warrants 
an  opinion,  the  country  will  be  well  rid  of  them.  A 
few  lead  useful  lives,  according  to  their  ideals,  and  a 
few  lead  high-ordered  lives  ;  the  bulk  of  them  are 
coarse,  sensual,  lazy  and  scandalously  ignorant. 

It  cannot  be  many  years  before  a  Combes  and  a 
Combist  party  come  to  power  in  Belgium.  The 
country  is  rapidly  ripening  for  them.  It  is  no  longer 
"a  Catholic  country"  except  in  the  sense  that  about 
half  its  men  and  the  greater  part  of  its  women  and 
children  are  Catholic.  But  most  of  them  are  Catholic 
only  in  virtue  of  the  momentum  of  a  long-unquestioned 
tradition,  and  the  modern  challenge  of  it  is  ringing 
through  all  their  towns  and  echoing  in  their  villages. 
The  movement  amongst  them  sufficiently  shows  that 
they  will  answer  as  France  has  answered. 


A 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  GERMANIC  WORLD-HOLLAND 

DISTINGUISHED  Dutch  journalist  with 
whom  I  one  day  discussed  the  plan  of  the 
present  work  observed :  "It  may  be  that 
you  will  find  a  loss  in  some  countries,  but  I  assure 
you  that  the  Roman  Catholics  are  gaining  ground  in 
Holland."  My  friend  was  a  Liberal,  and  a  whole- 
hearted opponent  of  the  Roman  claims.  He  did  but 
repeat  the  statement  that  probably  most  Dutch  writers 
who  had  not  made  a  close  inquiry  into  its  accuracy 
would  have  repeated.  But  I  had  met  the  illusion 
too  often  to  be  influenced  by  it.  I  had  heard  it 
made  by  English  writers,  American  writers,  and  Ger- 
man writers,  about  their  respective  countries  ;  and  I 
remembered  listening  to  the  same  plaintive  story  in 
the  heart  of  Switzerland.  Yet  we  have  seen  that  in 
all  these  countries  there  has  been  an  immense  loss, 
and  that  the  leakage  continues  more  rapidly  than 
ever. 

The  root  of  the  fallacy  is  simple.  These  are  all 
predominantly  Protestant  lands,  and  any  growth  of 
Catholicism  in  them  at  once  attracts  the  attention  of 
their  neighbours.  They  do  not  reflect  that  Catholic- 
ism must  grow — or  else  it  is  rapidly  decaying.  It  has 
a  birth-rate,  usually  an  exceptionally  high  birth-rate, 
that  should  double  its  numbers  in  less  than  two 
generations.  In  Catholic  lands  the  growth  does  not 
strike  the  eye,  because  there  are  no  non-Catholic 
areas  into  which  the  new  Catholic  colonies  must 
shoot.      In  Protestant  countries  the   new   chapel,  or 

276 


HOLLAND  277 

the  doubled  congregation,  is  at  once  remarked.  The 
elders  tell  how  there  were  in  their  youth  only  one 
or  two  Catholic  chapels  where  there  are  now  four 
or  five  ;  and  few  seem  to  reflect  that  this  is  a  quite 
natural  increase,  and  implies  no  proselytism  what- 
ever. Moreover,  the  earlier  Catholic  chapels  were 
usually  built  on  sparse  resources,  and  accommodated 
only  what  they  must  at  the  time.  So,  even  when 
Catholicism  is  advancing  only  at  half  the  pace  it 
ought  to  do — is,  in  other  words,  losing  heavily — they 
note  only  that  it  advances  at  all,  and  are  disinclined 
to  hear  of  leakage. 

This  fallacy  has  naturally  occurred  to  the  Dutch 
mind,  but  we  shall  see  that  is  as  groundless  in  regard 
to  Holland  as  we  found  it  in  regard  to  Switzerland. 
Indeed,  as  positive  figures  will  show,  there  is  even 
less  ground  for  it  in  the  case  of  Holland.  But  I  will 
first  glance  very  briefly  at  the  causes  why  there  is 
a  Catholic  body  at  all  in  Protestant  Holland. 

In  the  previous  chapter  I  told  how  the  united 
Netherlands  were  in  the  hands  of  Philip  of  Spain  at 
the  time  of  the  Reformation,  and  how  the  northern 
provinces  avidly  embraced  the  new  doctrines.  All 
the  ferocity  of  Alva's  troops  could  not  stifle  the  heroic 
temper  of  the  Dutch,  and  the  struggle  ended  in  their 
independence.  The  southern  provinces,  including 
some  that  were  later  incorporated  into  Holland, 
remained  under  Spanish  and  Austrian  rule,  and 
were  guarded  by  the  Inquisition.  The  story  is  re- 
flected in  the  religious  statistics  to-day.  Friesland, 
Groningen  and  Drenthe,  in  the  extreme  north,  are 
overwhelmingly  Protestant.  The  eastern  provinces 
are  one-fourth  Catholic  ;  the  central  provinces  one- 
third  ;  and  the  two  southern  provinces,  North  Bra- 
bant and  Limburg,  which  were  part  of  Austrian 
Belgium,  are  overwhelmingly  Catholic.     Dr   Kuiper 


278     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

explains,  in  his  "  Geschiedenis  van  het  Godsdienstig 
leven  van  het  Nederlandsche  Volk  "  (1903),  that  the 
Catholics  made  no  progress  in  Holland  until  the 
French  Revolution.  The  French,  as  elsewhere, 
fastened  upon  the  reluctant  people  the  maxim  of 
liberty  and  equality,  and  decreed  religious  freedom, 
in  1795.  They  planted  in  Holland  those  germs  of 
Liberalism  that  were  later  to  grow  into  a  formidable 
enemy  of  clericalism,  but  for  the  moment  they  gave 
a  stimulus  to  Catholic  expansion. 

We  have  seen  that,  on  the  settling  of  the  Napoleonic 
chaos,  the  Protestant  rulers  returned  to  Holland,  and 
the  Belgian  provinces  were  added  to  their  kingdom. 
Galling  as  the  rule  was  to  the  Catholic  Flemings,  it 
gave  advantages  to  the  Catholic  Dutch.  From 
Limburg  and  Brabant,  especially,  they  penetrated 
into  the  central  provinces,  and  helped  to  form  a  sub- 
stantial minority.  We  may,  in  fact,  usefully  start 
our  inquiry  into  their  fortunes  during  the  nineteenth 
century  from  the  census  of  1829,  the  year  before  the 
secession  of  the  Belgians  from  Orange  rule.  We 
have,  luckily,  ample  figures  to  test  the  strength  of 
Catholicism  in  each  decade,  and,  as  in  the  case  of 
other  predominantly  Protestant  countries  that  have 
had  a  fixed  Catholic  population  from  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  question  of  percentage 
is  important.  The  usual  law  of  increase  in  such 
circumstances  holds  good  ;  the  Catholics  have,  par- 
ticularly in  the  last  few  decades,  a  higher  birth-rate 
than  the  Protestants,  and  should  have  some  slight 
increase  of  their  percentage  from  decade  to  decade. 

I  may  say  at  once  that,  instead  of  increase,  we  find 
a  notable  decrease.  In  the  year  1829  there  were  in 
the  present  Dutch  provinces  1,544,887  Protestants 
and  1,019,109  Roman  Catholics;  the  Protestants 
formed  591 1    per   cent,    of  the  population,   and  the 


HOLLAND  279 

Catholics  38*99.  During  the  following  two  decades 
the  Protestant  percentage  slightly  increased,  and  the 
Catholics  slightly  fell.  After  that  date  the  school 
controversy  began  to  animate  the  political  world. 
The  Liberals  had  forced  a  revision  of  the  constitution 
in  1848,  and  one  of  the  new  measures  was  the  enforce- 
ment of  elementary  instruction.  Sectarian  schools 
were  allowed  to  be  set  up  side  by  side  with  the 
national  schools,  and  Catholic  life  was  somewhat  in- 
vigorated by  the  new  interest  that  was  thrust  upon 
it.  The  Liberals  were  at  this  period  more  occupied 
in  fighting  the  Conservative  Protestants  (or  Anti- 
revolutionaries,  as  they  are  still  called),  and  indeed 
to  some  extent  they  had  the  support  of  the  Catholics. 
They  promised  the  Catholics  full  liberty  to  exercise 
and  propagate  their  religion,  while  the  Orthodox 
party  threatened  to  curtail  this. 

Nevertheless,  the  Catholic  percentage  fell  still 
more  between  1849  and  1869,  and  the  Protestant 
percentage  increased  to  a  corresponding  extent. 
There  was  obviously  a  serious  leakage  from  the 
Catholic  to  the  Protestant  Church.  The  "  Old 
Catholics "  had  taken  some  5000  from  them,  but 
these  are  always  (and  quite  wrongly)  counted  with 
the  Catholics.  They  had  fallen  from  38*99  per  cent, 
of  the  population  in  1829  to  36*68  in  1869.  That 
indicates  a  loss  of  about  100,000,  or  nearly  a  twelfth 
of  their  body,  and  the  seceders  must  have  gone  over 
to  Protestantism  or  Liberalism.  From  that  time 
onward  the  Dutch  Catholics  have  had  the  usual 
incentives  to  organise ;  the  fight  over  the  Vatican 
decrees  with  the  seceding  Old  Catholics,  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Pope's  temporal  power,  and  the  echoes 
of  the  German  Kulturkampf,  became  so  many  inspir- 
ing themes  in  the  mouths  of  their  pastors. 

The    Catholics    of    Holland     had,     moreover,    an 


280     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

especial  stimulus  to  organisation  and  activity.  Their 
amiable  co-operation  with  the  Liberals  came  to  an 
end  in  1868.  It  is  said  that  the  consciousness  of 
their  increased  strength  dictated  this  resolution. 
They  had  certainly  not  duly  increased  in  numbers, 
but  no  doubt  the  political  experience  they  had 
acquired  would  support  their  decision ;  nor  would 
either  they  or  the  Liberals  maintain  much  cordiality 
after  the  publication  of  the  Syllabus  by  Pius  IX. 
Whatever  the  immediate  occasion  was,  they  now 
sided  commonly  with  the  Antirevolutionaries  against 
the  Liberals,  and  began  to  return  their  own  members 
(acting  in  conjunction  with  the  Protestants),  and  work 
for  the  abrogation  of  the  Liberal  school  law  of  1857. 
In  the  southern  provinces — Brabant  was  Catholic  to 
the  extent  of  97  per  cent. — they  used  the  local  authority 
virtually  to  transform  the  national  schools  into  sec- 
tarian. 

I  need  not  pursue  their  figures  decade  by  decade. 
It  is  enough  to  note  that,  in  spite  of  their  political 
and  philanthropic  activity,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  Protestant  birth-rate  was  now  appreciably 
lessening,  the  Catholic  percentage  continued  to  fall 
steadily.  There  were  at  the  last  census  (1899) 
1,790,161  Catholics  in  an  entire  population  of 
5,104,137.  Their  percentage  had  fallen  from  nearly 
39  in  the  year  1829  to  36-68  in  1869,  and  then  to 
35-0  at  the  end  of  the  century.  In  a  word,  their 
percentage  of  the  population  of  Holland  has  fallen 
by  four  units  in  the  course  of  the  last  seventy  years. 
It  is  quite  true  that  there  are  now  104,000  Jews  and 
115,000  professed  Freethinkers  in  Holland.  These 
make  up  4  per  cent,  of  the  total,  or  2  per  cent,  more 
than  they  did  in  1829.  But  the  important  point  is 
that  the  Protestant  percentage,  for  all  their  lower 
birth-rate,    is   slightly   higher  than    it    was   in    1829. 


HOLLAND  281 

The  loss  has  been  entirely  on  the  Catholic  side,  and 
it  has  been  very  considerable.  To  put  it  more  clearly, 
if  the  Catholics  had  maintained  their  percentage, 
as  the  Protestants  have  done,  they  should  number 
to-day  1,990,600.  As  a  fact,  they  fall  short  of  that 
by  more  than  200,000.  That  is  the  very  lowest 
measure  of  their  loss.  In  view  of  their  high  birth- 
rate the  loss  is  more  probably  300,000. 

Beyond  any  controversy,  then,  there  has  been  not 
growth,  but  considerable  loss,  on  the  part  of  the 
Dutch  Catholics.  They  have  failed  to  retain  several 
hundred  thousands  of  their  born  supporters ;  and 
the  leakage  is  just  as  great  in  the  last  decade  of 
the  century  as  in  the  preceding  decades.  The  official 
census  figures  show  this  to  any  who  care  to  analyse 
them.  It  is  curious  how  Dutch  writers  so  often  fail 
to  notice  this.  "  Conversions  to  the  Catholic  Church," 
says  Dr  Kuiper  in  his  "  Geschiedenis  van  het 
Godsdienstig  leven  "  (p.  725),  "are  rare,  and  Roman 
Catholic  immigrants  from  Belgium  and  the  Rhine 
Provinces  of  Germany  do  not  greatly  increase  their 
number."  So  Professor  De  la  Saussaye,  in  that 
admirable  review  of  Dutch  life,  "  Eene  Halve 
Eeuw":  "Catholics  of  late  years  have  become  more 
prominent  in  social  and  political  life,  though  they 
have  not  increased  in  numbers."  Neither  writer 
observes  that  they  have  really  lost  a  sixth  of  their 
supporters  in  the  course  of  sixty  or  seventy  years. 
Dr  Juraschek,  in  his  "  Staaten  Europas,"  notices  this 
loss. 

Thus  far  the  census  figures  themselves  take  us,  but 
we  have  invariably  found  that  the  loss  revealed  by 
the  census  percentages  is  only  a  fraction  of  the  whole. 
Probably  the  best  way  to  check  the  figures  will  be, 
as  in  the  case  of  Belgium,  to  examine  the  results  of 
recent    elections.       The    Catholics    have    their   own 


282     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

parliamentary  candidates,  and,  where  these  fail, 
support  the  Protestant  Antirevolutionaries.  For 
the  last  forty  years,  Liberals  have  been  regarded  in 
the  light  of  the  Syllabus,  and  it  has  been  accounted 
a  sin  to  support  them.  Yet  in  the  face  of  this  united 
Protestant-Catholic  opposition  the  Liberals  have  held 
power  almost  continuously  since  1848.  It  must  not, 
of  course,  be  imagined  that  there  is  a  clear  division 
between  the  Protestants  and  the  Liberals.  Dutch 
theology  has  admitted  a  great  deal  of  advanced 
thought,  and  the  ranks  of  the  Liberals  include  large 
numbers  who  will  certainly  maintain  the  title  of 
Christian  and  Protestant.  The  Antirevolutionaries 
are  the  more  Conservative  body  of  the  Reformed 
Church.  But  in  the  case  of  the  Catholics  the  division 
into  Progressives  and  Conservatives  is  violently 
repudiated.  No  doubt,  many  have  voted  either 
Liberal  or  Socialist  at  recent  elections,  but  they 
are  either  nominal  Catholics  only,  or  belong  to  that 
fringe  of  the  Catholic  body  where  seceders  are  most 
numerous.  We  may,  therefore,  look  to  the  political 
situation  with  confidence  for  further  enlightenment 
on  the  strength  of  the  Roman  Church. 

Until  the  year  1887  the  franchise  was  very  re- 
stricted, and  the  electoral  struggles  merely  reflect 
the  temper  of  the  middle  class.  In  1886,  for  instance, 
the  Liberals  secured  forty-seven  seats,  and  their  united 
opponents  thirty-nine  (though  the  latter  had  53,826 
votes  to  the  former  47,613).  In  the  following  year 
the  electorate  was  nearly  trebled,  but  it  was  still  very 
narrow,  and  the  Liberals  continued  to  enjoy  power. 
But  the  inevitable  split  now  took  place  in  the  Liberal 
ranks,  and  had  the  familiar  consequence.  A  number 
of  issues,  such  as  the  suffrage  question  and  the 
colonial  policy,  developed  the  latent  antagonism  of 
Whigs,  Liberals  and  Radicals.     Dr  Tak,  one  of  the 


HOLLAND  283 

ablest  members  of  the  Liberal  cabinet,  introduced  a 
very  wide  enfranchising  measure,  and  the  historic 
party  went  to  pieces,  in  the  storm  that  ensued.  At 
the  election  of  1894  the  two  Liberal  factions  still 
overpowered  the  clericals.  The  franchise  was  now 
extended,  and  Catholics  and  Protestants  prepared 
with  great  confidence  for  the  election  of  1897,  when 
they  expected  to  annihilate  the  bourgeois  Liberal 
party  with  the  aid  of  the  enfranchised  workers.  The 
issue  was  nominally  Free  Trade  or  Protection ; 
but  as  the  election  approached,  and  the  activity  and 
expectations  of  the  clericals  attracted  attention,  it 
became  in  the  main  a  struggle  of  Liberals  and 
clericals.  Nearly  every  literate  and  self-supporting 
male  now  had  the  vote,  and  the  result  was  expected 
with  the  liveliest  interest. 

For  us  the  result  contains  a  good  deal  of  instruction 
in  regard  to  the  strength  of  Catholicism  in  Holland. 
Forming,  nominally,  more  than  a  third  of  the  nation, 
and  having  an  overwhelming  predominance  in  two 
large  provinces,  it  should  command  a  good  proportion 
of  the  electorate  ;  and  the  clergy  were  particularly 
active  in  preparing  for  the  election  of  1897.  Yet, 
on  the  increased  poll,  and  with  the  friendly  co-operation 
of  the  Protestants,  the  Catholics  lost  three  seats.  The 
divided  Liberals  lost  ten  seats,  but  the  spoil  fell  to 
the  Protestants  and  Socialists ;  the  Catholic  group 
fell  to  twenty-two,  or  little  more  than  one-fifth  of  the 
States-General.  The  number  of  votes  I  have  not 
the  opportunity  of  seeing,  but  I  learn  from  the 
"  Nieuve  Tijd "  that  the  Liberals  and  Socialists 
polled  170,000  votes,  and  the  combined  clericals 
190,000.  As  the  Protestant  and  Catholic  deputies 
were  equal  in  number,  we  may  divide  the  vote.  The 
Catholics  thus  turn  out  only  about  one-fourth  of  the 
electorate,  and  claim  to  be  35  per  cent,  of  the  nation. 


284      DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

The  division  of  the  Liberals  became  more  pro- 
nounced than  ever.  The  democrats  and  the  Socialists 
started  separate  parties,  and  the  election  of  1901 
found  the  united  clericals  facing  three  hostile  pro- 
gressive bodies.  The  result  was  that  the  Liberals 
were  defeated,  and  the  leader  of  the  chief  Protestant 
group,  Dr  Kuiper,  formed  a  ministry,  in  which  he 
included  several  Catholics.  The  Catholics  secured 
twenty-five  seats  and  the  Protestants  thirty-one,  while 
their  opponents  only  obtained  forty-two.  However, 
according  to  the  figures  in  the  "  Nieuve  Tijd,"  the 
clericals  had  secured  less  votes  than  ever,  and  the 
anticlericals  more  than  ever.  The  Catholic  and 
Protestant  vote  was  only  180,557.  The  Liberal  and 
Socialist  180,959.  Nor  was  the  fictitious  advantage 
of  the  clericals  maintained  at  the  next  (and  last) 
election.  They  had  again  attempted  to  tamper  with 
education,  and  the  Liberal  forces  partly  united,  and 
threw  them  out  of  power.  I  have  not  the  voting 
strength  of  the  various  parties,  but  the  Liberals  again 
secured  forty-five  seats  and  the  Socialists  seven ; 
while  the  Protestants  lost  sixteen,  and  the  Catholics 
remained  as  they  were. 

The  political  test,  therefore,  shows  that  the  Catholic 
number  about  one-fourth  of  the  electorate.  It  is 
difficult  to  imagine  that  they  really  number  35  per 
cent,  of  the  population  in  such  circumstances,  but 
no  more  precise  tests  are  available.  We  must  be 
content  to  grant  them  1,790,161  nominal  adherents 
in  Holland,  and  take  their  serious  drop  in  percentage 
since  1829  to  mean  a  clear  loss  of  300,000. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

RUSSIA 

IN  the  course  of  the  last  section  I  had  occasion 
to  point  out  an  aspect  of  the  Vatican's  losses 
that  is  too  often  overlooked.  If  Ireland  had 
prospered,  the  Vatican  would  have  to-day  a  nation  of 
18,000,000  followers  (besides  the  Protestants)  within 
its  confines,  instead  of  the  3,000,000  distressed  and 
resourceless  adherents  that  it  actually  has.  When 
we  turn  to  Poland,  we  find  the  Ireland  of  the  East. 
If  Poland  had  prospered — if  Poland  had  but  retained 
the  territory  it  held  as  late  as  1770,  and  enjoyed  a 
moderate  prosperity — it  would  form  to-day  a  Roman 
Catholic  nation  of  about  50,000,000  souls,  besides 
heretics  and  schismatics.  By  the  evil  fortune  that 
has  fallen  on  those  two  passionately  Catholic  races, 
the  Church  of  Rome  has,  in  little  more  than  a  century, 
lost  fully  40,000,000  devoted  followers. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  into  transcendental 
inquiries  into  that  evil  fortune.  I  will  only  recall  a 
Catholic  apologetic  work  of  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  that  one  reads  with  something  like  amusement 
to-day.  A  Spanish  priest,  Father  Balmez,  wrote  a 
learned  and  really  able  work  to  prove  that  Catholicism 
promoted  civilisation,  while  Protestantism  retarded 
and  menaced  it.  He  wrote  in  an  hour  when  the 
great  Catholic  nations  still  held  the  field — when 
Spain  still  seemed  to  prosper,  and  France  dominated 
one  half  of  Europe  and  Austria  the  other  ;  when 
England  alone  of  the  Protestant  peoples  offered  them 
serious  rivalry.  What  a  change  has  come  over  the 
285 


286      DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

fortunes  of  the  race  since  that  time !  The  Holy 
Roman  Empire  is  dead,  and  shrunken  Austria  is 
threatened  with  dissolution.  The  papal  monarchy- 
is  dead,  and  Italy  is  half  lost  to  the  Church.  France 
is  no  longer  a  Catholic  country.  Spain  is  stripped  of 
the  last  tatters  of  her  empire,  and  her  whole  literature 
is  steeped  in  melancholy.  Portugal  is  bankrupt. 
Poland  is  trodden  under  the  heel  of  the  Muscovite. 
The  Protestant  peoples  overspread  the  globe.  What 
an  answer  to  the  proud  Catholic  argument  of  Bal- 
mez,  which  was  once  so  much  treasured !  But  I  must 
leave  this  kind  of  procedure  to  the  Protestant  contro- 
versialist, and  return  to  sociological  considerations. 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  position  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  in  Russia  we  must  understand  well  what 
Poland  was  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  and  what,  with  good  fortune,  she  might 
have  been  to-day.  The  Reformation  had  at  first 
made  great  progress  in  Poland.  The  cultural  prestige 
of  Bohemia  attracted  large  numbers  of  Polish  youths 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  Hussite  preachers  returned 
with  them  and  worked  with  great  success.  The 
usual  theme,  of  the  corruption  of  the  Catholic  clergy, 
did  not  lack  illustration  in  Poland.  Lutherans  and 
Calvinists  came  in  turn.  By  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  greater  part  of  the  Poles  had 
rejected  Catholicism.  The  nobles  especially  embraced 
the  new  doctrines,  with  the  feeling  that  the  change  of 
faith  accentuated  their  self-assertion  in  opposition 
to  the  monarchy.  The  feudal  system  was  still  in 
vigour,  and  the  nobles  not  only  jealously  preserved 
their  power,  but  controlled  the  submissive  serfs  as 
they  willed.  Before  long,  however,  the  somnolent 
clergy  awoke,  and  called  in  the  brilliant  agents  of  the 
counter-reformation,  the  Jesuits.  It  was  not  difficult 
for  the  followers  of  St  Ignatius  to  convince  the  nobles 


RUSSIA  287 

that  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformers  were  dangerously 
democratic,  and  they  brought  the  serfs  back  to  the 
Roman  obedience. 

The  pitiful  story  of  that  long  and  effective  persecu- 
tion of  heretics  and  schismatics  does  not  concern  us 
here.1  It  is  enough  to  note  that  it  lasted  well  into 
the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  By  that 
time  the  glory  had  entirely  departed  from  the  land  of 
Sobieski,  but  it  was  still  a  large  and  overwhelmingly 
Catholic  country.  Its  chief  Catholic  historian,  Father 
Theiner  ("  Die  neuesten  Zustande  der  Katholischen 
Kirche  in  Polen  und  Russland,"  1841),  says  that  in 
1768  "the  Poles  were  a  strong  and  wholly  Catholic 
nation  of  nearly  21  million  souls."  I  must  confess 
to  a  serious  difficulty  in  reconciling  the  confused 
statements  of  Father  Theiner  and  his  followers.  He 
speaks  at  one  moment  of  12,000,000  Greek  Uniates, 
and  at  another  moment  of  "between  13  and  14 
million  adherents  of  the  State  Church "  (Roman 
Catholic) ;  while  his  modern  successor,  Father  Les- 
cceur  ("  L'Eglise  Catholique  et  le  Gouvernement 
Russe,"  1903)  says  that  there  were  12,000,000  Latin 
and  Greek  Catholics,  4,000,000  Greek  Schismatics, 
and  2,000,000  Jews  and  Mohammedans.  From  all 
the  conflicting  statements  it  seems  safe  to  conclude 
that  there  were  about  14,000,000  Latin  and  Greek 
Catholics  (all  subject  to  Rome)  and  about  5,000,000 
Greek  Orthodox  (subject  to  the  Russian  Church)  and 
Protestants.  If  this  nation  had  held  together,  the 
Vatican  would,  as  I  said,  have  a  powerful  body  of 
more  than  40,000,000  Slav  followers  to-day.  From 
the  wreck  of  this  promising  Church  it  has  not  saved 
20,000,000. 

1  See,  especially,  Krause's  "  Die  Reformation  und  Gegen-Reforma- 
tion  in  Poland"  (1901),  Heard's  "Russian  Church  and  Russian 
Dissent"  (1887)  and  Neale's  "  History  of  the  Eastern  Church." 


•288      DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

How  the  catastrophe  came  about   I    have  already 
explained   in  part,   and  will   now  briefly   outline  the 
story.       Poland   had    fallen    into   senile    decrepitude 
under  the  guidance  of  the   Jesuits  (whom   it  finally 
expelled),  and  two  powerful  and  not  very  scrupulous 
neighbours   held    consultations   with    regard    to    the 
"sick  man."     Frederick  of  Prussia  expressed  concern 
about    the    harsh    treatment    of    the    Protestants   in 
Lithuania,   and    Catherine   II.  of    Russia   intervened 
on  behalf  of  the  Greek  schismatics.      Nothing  would 
arrest    the    bigotry   and    intolerance  of  the   Catholic 
clergy,  whom  the  government  was  not  strong  enough 
to  check,  and  Poland  was  coolly  dismembered.     In 
three  successive  partitions  Russia,  Prussia  and  Austria 
took   away  nearly  the   whole  of  its  provinces.     The 
Napoleonic  interlude  altered  the  map  for  a  time,  but 
the  Council  of  Vienna  in  1815  substantially  confirmed 
the  partitions.      It  left  standing  only  a  tiny  republic 
at  Cracow,  that  presently  fell  into  the  jaws  of  Austria  ; 
and  a  shrunken  kingdom  under  Russian  suzerainty, 
which  was  afterwards  fully  incorporated  in  the  Tsar's 
dominions.    How  the  Poles  fared  in  Prussia  and  Austria 
we  have   seen.    They  have  lost  heavily  in    Prussia, 
but  add  to-day  between  2,000,000  and  3,000,000  to 
the  Catholic  population  of  the  German  Empire.     In 
Austria  their  creed  was  sheltered,  and  the  Latin  and 
Greek  Catholics  of  earlier  Poland   now    have  some 
6,000,000   descendants    in    Galicia.       It    remains    to 
consider  the  fate  of  the  remainder  under  Russian  rule. 
We  may  first  inquire  into  the  fortunes  of  the  Greek 
Uniates,  who  formed  a  very  large  part  of  the  Polish 
population   at   the    time  of  the  first  partition.     The 
eastern   provinces  had  been  wrested  from  Russia  in 
the  days  of  Poland's  glory,  and  were  mainly  peopled 
with  communities  that  followed  the  Greek  rite.     Most 
of  them  acknowledged  the  authority  of  Rome,   and 


RUSSIA  289 

were  known  on  that  account  as  the  Greek  (some- 
times, Ruthenian)  Uniates.  They  were  originally  part 
of  the  Russian  Church,  but  in  1595  the  Jesuits,  failing 
to  bring  Russia  into  union  with  Rome,  fell  back  upon 
these  Polish  provinces,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of 
securing  the  "  conversion  "  of  the  whole  hierarchy  with 
1 1,000,000  followers.  It  seems  that  the  Greek  prelates 
had  in  view  certain  material  and  very  secular  advan- 
tages, which  were  held  out  to  them,  and,  as  the 
promises  were  not  fulfilled,  they  and  millions  of 
their  followers  fell  back  to  Greek  Orthodoxy  as  easily 
as  they  had  left  it.  When  Sobieski  was  forced  to  cede 
the  Ukraine  to  Russia  in  1685,  and  their  clergy  passed 
under  the  obedience  of  Moscow,  this  would  take  place 
more  than  ever. 

However,  Father  Theiner  claims  that  there  were 
12,000,000  Uniates  in  Poland,  Lithuania,  White 
Russia  and  Galicia  in  the  year  1 77 1,  with  17,000 
priests  and  251  monasteries.  For  this  he  quotes 
the  authority  of  one  of  their  chief  prelates,  Bishop 
Wolodkowicz.  The  fate  of  these  Uniates  is  one 
of  the  most  tragic  experiences  that  the  Vatican  has 
had  since  the  Reformation.  In  a  word,  only  about 
50,000  of  them  remain  in  union  with  the  Church  of 
Rome  to-day,  apart  from  those  in  Galicia.  If  we  are  to 
follow  Father  Theiner,  and  regard  them  as  numbering 
12,000,000  in  177 1,  they  must  number  fully  40,000,000 
now  ;  and  all  but  an  insignificant  remnant  in  Poland, 
and  the  Greek  Uniates  of  Galicia,  have  passed  into 
the  Russian  Orthodox  Church.  Father  Theiner 
says  that  eight  millions  of  them  were  captured  by  the 
Russian  Church  between  1773  and  1796.  Certainly 
the  official  Catholic  reports,  which  he  gives,  describe 
them  as  numbering  only  3,500,000  about  the  year 
1820,  and  on  these  he  bases  his  statement  of  the 
appalling  loss  to  the  Vatican.     Nearly  10,000  churches 


290     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

and  145  monasteries  are  included  in  the  loss.  The 
details  he  gives  of  the  tactics  pursued  by  Catherine  II. 
from  the  moment  of  the  first  partition  of  Poland 
make  this  credible  enough.  In  one  year  (1795)  the 
Catholic  Archbishop  of  Mohilew  reported  the  se- 
cession of  more  than  1,000,000  Ruthenes.  Father 
Theiner  is,  of  course,  unwilling  to  admit  that  the 
Russian  procedure  was  merely  an  imitation  of  the 
procedure  hitherto  employed  by  the  Poles  in  the 
interest  of  Rome  ;  but  he  is  frank  enough  to  admit 
that  the  cupidity  of  the  Uniate  prelates  and  monks, 
and  the  folly  of  the  Roman  authorities  in  forcing  the 
Latin  rite  in  the  churches,  greatly  aided  the  Russian 
efforts. 

However,  we  will  not  linger  over  Father  Theiner's 
arithmetical  puzzles,  as  this  vast  loss  to  the  Vatican 
does  not  quite  fall  within  the  period  of  our  inquiry. 
We  have  to  see  rather  how  the  remnant  of  the  Uniates 
and  the  Roman  Catholics  fared  under  Russian  rule 
after  the  Council  of  Vienna. 

The  story  of  the  Uniates  is  quickly  told.  Paul  I. 
suspended  the  policy  of  Catherine,  and  gave  back 
to  them  their  hierarchy  and  large  numbers  of  their 
churches.  Alexander  I.  retained  this  kindlier  treat- 
ment, and  they  throve  in  peace  until  his  death  in  1825. 
At  that  time  they  had,  according  to  the  diocesan 
reports,  1985  priests,  666  monks,  1476  churches  and 
1,427,579  adult  parishioners.  But  with  the  accession 
of  Nicholas  I.  the  Catherinian  policy  returned,  and 
the  process  of  complete  Russification  went  on.  For 
all  Father  Theiner's  rhetoric,  it  seems  to  have  been 
innocent  enough  down  to  1834,  as  the  diocesan  reports 
in  that  year  give  them  2006  priests  and  1,505,281 
adult  parishioners.  Five  years  later  the  whole  of  these 
Uniates  in  Russia,  with  their  bishops  and  clergy  and 
monks,  solemnly  discarded  the  Roman  allegiance  and 


RUSSIA  291 

joined  the  Russian  Church.  It  was  the  most  formid- 
able corporate  lapse  from  Romanism  since  the  Refor- 
mation. As  the  diocesan  figures  do  not  include 
children  under  ten,  the  total  number  of  seceders 
must  have  been  about  2,000,000,  and  they  must 
number  quite  4,000,000  to-day.  There  remained 
still  a  diocese  of  250,000  Uniates  in  Poland,  but  the 
drama  was  almost  completed  when  200,000  of  these 
seceded  from  Rome  in  1877  and  1878. 

"  That  is  all  right,  as  regards  the  Uniates  ;  now  for 
the  Latins,"  said  Nicholas  I.  cheerfully  to  Benkendorf 
when  the  transfer  was  accomplished.  We  are  con- 
cerned with  the  results,  not  the  manner  of  their 
procedure.  It  was  humane  indeed  compared  with 
the  devices  by  which  papal  authorities  were  even  then 
attempting  to  stamp  out  heresy  in  Italy  and  Spain ; 
and  it  compares  favourably  enough  with  the  tactics 
employed  by  the  Poles  themselves  when  they  had 
power.1  It  commonly  consisted  in  transferring  churches 
to  the  Russian  minority  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
Orthodox  in  origin,  offering  indirect  bribes  to  seceders, 
and  exiling  troublesome  priests  to  Siberia.  Sometimes 
a  group  of  the  dull-witted  Catholic  peasantry  would 
be  gathered  together,  and  asked  to  pray  for  the  Tsar. 
As  they  prayed,  lighted  candles  were  put  in  their 
hands  ;  and  when  they  had  finished  they  were  as- 
tonished to  find  themselves  enrolled  in  the  Orthodox 
Church,  on  the  ground  that  they  had  in  their  prayers 
used  candles  that  had  been  blessed  by  the  Orthodox 
clergy.  The  Polish  insurrections  of  1830  and  i860 
afforded  a  pretext  for  greater  severity,  and  large 
numbers  were  transferred  from  Rome  to  Moscow. 
In  the  Wilna  district  alone  140  churches  were  confis- 

1  See  A.  F.  Heard's  "Russian  Church  and  Russian  Dissent" 
(1887);  A.  D.  Kyriakos's  "  Geschichte  des  Orientalischen  Kirchen" 
(1902),  and  Boissard's  "Eglise  de  Russie." 


292     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

cated  in  one  year,  and  4412  Catholics,  in  a  group  of 
parishes  containing  18,000,  were  "  converted."  During 
the  seventies,  after  the  declaration  of  papal  infallibility, 
thousands  of  conversions  were  reported  every  year. 

What  the  total  loss  was  amongst  the  Latin  Catholics, 
in  addition  to  the  millions  of  Greek  seceders,  it  is  not 
easy  to  determine,  on  account  of  the  confusion  of 
Latins  and  Uniates  in  the  earlier  statistics.  Some  idea 
may  be  obtained  in  this  way.  The  official  diocesan 
statistics  (in  Theiner)  give  the  adult  Latin  Catholics 
— "capaces  sacramentorum  " — in  Russia  in  1804  as 
1,635,490.  That  means  a  total  Catholic  population 
— apart  from  Poland — of  more  than  2,000,000.  In 
1834  the  adult  population  was  2,604,047  :  the  total 
Catholic  population  would  be  about  3,250,000.  At 
this  rate  of  increase  the  total  should  be  at  the  end 
of  the  nineteenth  century  more  than  7,000,000.  But 
the  actual  number  of  Roman  Catholics  in  Russia, 
without  Poland,  at  the  last  census  was  only  4-,3sS,yyy. 
This  shows  a  clear  loss  of  3,000,000  Latin  Catholics 
on  the  census  statistics  for  Russia  proper. 

The  number  of  Catholics  in  Poland  at  the  last 
census  was  6,987,467.  Unfortunately,  I  cannot  find 
a  figure  for  the  earlier  part  of  the  century  with  which 
to  compare  this.  The  earliest  exact  enumeration  is 
for  the  year  1870,  when  the  Roman  Catholics  formed 
76*1  per  cent,  of  the  population  and  the  Greek 
Catholics  3*9.  The  latter  have,  as  we  saw,  nearly 
disappeared  and  the  Latin  Catholics  have  fallen  to 
74'3  Per  cent-  °f  the  population.  As  the  number  of 
Orthodox  Greeks  in  Poland  has,  in  the  same  period, 
risen  from  34,000  to  663,000,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
infer  what  has  happened.  Father  Lescceur,  indeed, 
describes  the  Russians  as  robbing  the  Latin  churches 
little  less  successfully  than  the  Greek,  and  Neale 
gives  positive  figures  of  thousands  of  Catholic  seces- 


RUSSIA  293 

sions  in  single  years.  But  in  the  absence  of  exact 
figures  for  the  early  decades  we  must  refrain  from 
claiming  more  than  the  few  hundred  thousand  seces- 
sions that  Theiner  and  Lescceur  and  Neale  seem  to 
indicate.  With  the  loss  of  3,000,000  Uniates  and 
3,000,000  Latins  in  Russia  proper  since  1834,  we  get 
a  safe  total  leakage  of  at  least  6,500,000.  When  one 
reads  of  the  great  Polish  Church  of  1 77 1,  with  its 
14,000,000  or  15,000,000  followers  and  more  than 
20,000  priests,  and  then  reads  that  the  Catholic 
Church  to-day  has  only  1 1,000,000  followers  in  Russia 
one  feels  that  this  is  much  too  modest  a  statement.1 
European  Russia  has  trebled  its  population  since 
the  year  1800;  and  whereas  the  increase  of  the 
Russian  population  has  averaged  74  per  cent,  in  the 
last  fifty  years,  the  increase  has  reached  117  per  cent, 
in  Poland.  One  can  infer  what  the  Polish  Church  of 
1 77 1  ought  to  number  to-day.  Yet  the  whole  Catholic 
population,  Latin  and  Greek,  of  the  provinces  that 
then  were  Poland,  does  not  to-day  amount  to 
20,000,000  (including  Posen,  Gnesen,  and  Galicia). 


SUMMARY    FOR    THE    GERMANIC    AND    SLAVONIC    WORLD 

The  third  part  of  our  inquiry  reveals  the  operation 
of  the  same  laws  as  the  two  preceding  sections. 
There    is    no    country    in    Europe    in   which    Roman 

1  The  figure  for  Russia  is  variously  given.  The  figures  I  quote 
for  Russia  proper  and  Poland  are  from  Dr  Juraschek.  Add  560 
Roman  Catholics  for  Finland,  and  the  total  is  found  to  be  11,326,804. 
The  Armenian  schismatics  are  often  wrongly  added  to  the  list. 
Emigration  from  Poland  does  not  greatly  affect  the  figures,  and 
when  they  emigrate,  the  Poles,  like  the  Irish,  freely  abandon  the 
Church.  In  the  United  States  there  is  a  Polish  Independent 
Catholic  Church  (hostile  to  Rome)  with  80,000  members  and  twenty- 
four  priests. 


294     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Catholicism  is  making  progress ;  in  every  country  it 
has  to  admit,  by  the  mouth  of  its  own  representa- 
tives, very  serious  losses ;  and  in  almost  every  part 
of  Europe  the  loss  is  proportionate  to  the  literacy 
and  mental  activity  of  the  population.  The  Catholic 
world  in  the  west  of  Europe  is  in  one  important 
respect  analogous  to  the  English-speaking  Catholic 
world.  A  devotedly  Catholic  nation  has  almost 
disappeared  from  the  map.  This  catastrophe  is  very 
rarely  noticed  in  itself,  but  the  moment  the  scattered 
fragments  reappear  in  a  different  nationality  the 
hollow  cry  of  progress  is  raised.  The  impartial 
sociological  inquirer  cannot  fail  to  see  that  the  ap- 
parent progress  really  reveals  a  disaster  more  serious 
to  the  Vatican  than  the  fate  of  Ireland.  Amongst 
the  really  Germanic  peoples  Catholicism  has  steadily 
decayed  all  through  the  century.  Its  numerical 
strength  in  western  Europe  is  only  maintained  at  a 
moderate  level  by  the  prolific  growth  of  backward  and 
illiterate  races,  that  have  been  so  largely  absorbed 
into  the  German,  Russian  and  Austro- Hungarian 
empires. 

In  tabulating  the  results  I  will  add  the  small  out- 
standing Catholic  populations  that  are  found  in  the 
Balkan  and  other  small  principalities,  and  in  other 
countries  where  they  are  too  slight  in  numbers  to 
merit  close  analysis.  For  Norway,  Sweden  and 
Denmark  we  may  accept  the  official  figures  (which  I 
take  from  Dr  Juraschek)  without  comment.  The 
grand  duchy  of  Luxemburg  and  Monaco  would,  no 
doubt,  show  a  large  proportion  of  merely  nominal 
Catholicism,  but  the  totals  are  too  small  to  linger 
over.  The  Balkan  provinces,  with  Turkey  and 
Greece,  add  a  larger  contribution  to  the  strength, 
but  it  is  utterly  unprofitable  and  unnecessary  to 
inquire    closely    into    the    religious    beliefs    of    these 


RUSSIA 


295 


illiterate  communities.  The  Orthodox  Greek  and 
Russian  Churches  have,  in  these  districts,  made 
great  inroads  on  the  Roman  jurisdiction,  and  at  any- 
time political  changes — I  need  only  recall  recent 
proceedings  in  Bulgaria — may  strike  hundreds  of 
thousands  out  of  the  Catholic  total.  In  any  case 
the  character  of  the  people  makes  an  exact  inquiry 
both  impossible  and  superfluous.  I  assign  the  whole 
of  the  numbers  officially  claimed  to  the  authority  of 
the  Vatican.  The  position  of  Rome  in  the  rest  of 
Europe  is  therefore  as  follows  : — 


Country 

Catholic 
Total 

Catholic 
Loss 

German  Empire 
Austria-Hungary 
Switzerland        .... 
Belgium    ..... 
Holland    ..... 
Norway,  Sweden  and  Denmark 
Luxemburg        .... 
Balkan  States,  Turkey  and  Greece 
Russia       ..... 

20,000,000 
29,000,000 

1,000,000 
4,500,000 
1,700,000 

8,732 

232,000 

847,000 

11,326,804 

5,000,000 
4,000,000 

500,000 
2,500,000 

300,000 

6,500,000 

68,614,536 

18,800,000 

CHAPTER  XV 

CONCLUSION 

MORE  than  once  in  the  course  of  this  essay 
I  have  been  led  to  recall  the  fortune  of  that 
earlier  Roman  Empire  to  which  the  Church 
of  Rome  in  a  great  measure  succeeded.  At  the  close 
of  our  inquiry  many  a  reader  will  instinctively  revert 
to  the  parallel.  By  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  the 
Western  Empire  had  so  far  decayed  that  the  first 
serious  assault  from  the  north  laid  it  in  ruins.  Yet 
we  look  in  vain,  in  the  letters  of  Symmachus  or  the 
conversations  of  cultivated  patricians  that  Macrobius 
records,  for  a  recognition  of  the  decay  in  the  leading 
Romans  of  the  time.  Here  and  there  we  get  a  blunt 
soldier  like  Ammianus  Marcellinus  breathing  disgust, 
as  he  returns  from  the  menaced  frontiers  to  the  ener- 
vation of  the  capital.  But  through  nearly  the  whole 
life  of  the  time  there  is  a  feeling  of  security,  an  opiate 
acquiescence  in  the  tradition  of  Rome's  immortality, 
that  we  can  hardly  understand.  So  it  is  with  the 
life  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  Here  and  there  a  blunt 
soldier,  a  priest  or  layman  awakened  to  the  danger 
by  his  frontier  war,  raises  a  cry  of  alarm,  but  the 
great  majority  of  its  supporters  still  idly  cherish 
the  inherited  belief  in  immortality,  or  even  cling  to 
the  dream  of  imperial  expansion  that  quickened  the 
Catholic  imagination  half-a-century  ago.  Yet  we, 
who  stand  outside,  see  a  rapid  decay  eating  into  the 
foundations  of  every  part  of  the  Church  and  already 
showing  its  grim  triumph  over  what  were  once 
flourishing  provinces. 

296 


CONCLUSION  297 

I  do  not  for  a  moment  suggest  that  the  imagination 
may  pursue  the  analogy  further,  and  that  at  some 
near  impending  date  a  historian  will  write  the 
dramatic  story  of  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman 
Church.  It  would  be  invidious  to  suggest  a  parallel 
between  the  Goths  and  Vandals  and  Huns  that 
pressed  on  the  old  Roman  frontiers  and  the  Pro- 
testants, Greeks  and  Freethinkers  that  make  inroads 
into  Romanism  to-day ;  nor  would  the  possibili- 
ties thus  suggested  be  quite  justified.  There  is  a 
far  greater  power  of  recuperation  in  the  Church  of 
Rome  than  there  was  in  the  empire  of  Honorius. 
There  are  easily  realisable  ways  in  which  certain  fatal 
errors  may  be  redeemed  and  some  of  the  causes  of 
decay  arrested.  I  will  return  to  these  possibilities 
presently,  and  only  wish,  for  the  moment,  to  guard 
against  the  misconstruction  that  the  parallel  with 
the  Roman  Empire  may  naturally  prompt.  In  the 
meantime  let  us  sum  up  the  result  of  our  inquiry 
and  conceive  well  the  actual  position  of  the  Church. 

The  summaries  at  the  close  of  each  of  my  three 
sections  show  a  net  loss  to  the  Vatican,  within  the 
last  seventy  years  or  so,  of  about  80,000,000  followers. 
I  have  taken  different  periods  for  the  commencement 
of  my  inquiry  in  different  countries,  because  the 
leakage  movement  has  varied  with  national  and 
cultural  circumstances.  Broadly  speaking,  the  great 
leakage  begins  with  the  culmination  of  the  middle- 
class  revolt  in  the  revolutionary  wave  of  the  early 
thirties.  In  most  countries  the  explicit  secessions 
were  few  up  to  that  period,  though  it  has  been 
necessary  to  describe  the  development  of  the  move- 
ment. In  some  countries — France,  for  instance — 
there  was  a  signal  Catholic  recovery,  and  my  state- 
ment of  loss  belongs  entirely  to  the  last  thirty  or 
forty  years.      Indeed,  it  is  probable,  as  the  reader  will 


298     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

easily  detect,  that  50,000,000  of  the  loss  falls  within 
the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  one  cares  to  ask  what  has  been  the 
total  loss  to  the  Vatican  since  the  first  revolutionary 
stirrings  of  a  century  and  a  quarter  ago,  the  figure 
rises  enormously.  France  was  then  wholly  Catholic  ; 
Poland  upheld  the  authority  of  the  Vatican  over  a 
vast  area  of  Europe  where  it  is  now  almost  powerless  ; 
Ireland  was  pouring  thousands  of  Catholics  annually 
into  the  wilderness  of  North  America,  of  whom  and 
their  descendants  not  a  tenth  have  been  retained  in 
the  Church  ;  and  Spain  held  large  numbers  of  natives 
in  nominal  allegiance  to  Rome,  who  had  already 
fallen  away  at  the  point  where  I  begin  to  tabulate 
the  secessions.1  We  should  have  to  add  at  least 
20,000,000  to  the  total  if  we  extended  the  inquiry 
back  over  those  years.  I  have  felt  it  to  be  better  to 
restrict  myself  to  the  modern  period,  partly  because 
more  reliable  figures  are  available,  partly  because  I 
do  not  wish  to  include  the  grandchildren  and  great- 
grandchildren of  seceders. 

That  the  total  loss  of  80,000,000  does  not  mean  that 
so  many  individuals  have  formally  abandoned  the 
Church  I  have  made  quite  clear  as  I  proceeded.  Any 
attempt  to  tabulate  actual  secessions,  and  to  find 
how  many  of  these  seceders,  or  of  their  children, 
were  recovered,  would  be  quite  futile.  The  only 
practicable  thing  to  do,  and  the  point,  I  assume,  that 

1  The  earlier  loss  in  Poland  I  have  described.  The  facts  as 
to  France  and  Spain  need  no  further  illustration,  As  to  North 
America,  I  have  before  me  a  letter  to  The  Sun  (12th  February 
1707),  by  M.  J.  O'Brien,  showing  from  contemporary  documents 
that  the  Irish  were  arriving  there  in  thousands  every  year  from 
1720  onwards.  At  specific  ports  the  numbers  were  given  as  5600 
in  1727  and  5655  in  1728.  The  statistics  of  American  Catholicism 
that  I  gave  show  that  the  vast  majority  of  these  and  their  descend- 
ants fell  away  to  Protestantism. 


CONCLUSION  299 

is  of  broadest  social  interest,  was  to  discover  how 
far  the  Catholic  population  of  each  country  falls 
short  by  leakage  of  what  it  should  be  at  the  close  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  If  30,000,000  of  the  French 
were  Catholic  in  1875,  and  only  5, 500,000  (at  the  most) 
are  Catholic  to-day,  it  seems  plain  that,  allowing 
for  the  slight  increase  of  population  in  France,  the 
Church  has  lost  25,000,000  followers.  That,  at  all 
events,  is  the  meaning  of  my  statement  of  loss  ;  and 
I  may  add  that  in  countries  like  France  most  of  the 
living  25,000,000  have  actually  been  baptised  Catholic. 
My  statement  means,  in  brief,  that,  after  making  full 
allowance  for  conversions  to  Catholicism,  immigration 
and  comparative  birth-rates  (where  there  is  a  proved 
difference  between  the  Catholic  and  non-Catholic), 
the  Church  of  Rome  was,  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth 
century — though  I  have  carried  the  figures  to  1905 
where  it  was  possible — 80,000,000  short  of  its  due  total 
entirely  through  secessions  from  its  creed  and 
authority.  The  actual  loss  is  far  greater.  This  is 
the  net  loss,  after  making  allowance  for  all  its  converts. 
In  almost  every  chapter  I  have  been  able  to  rely  on 
Roman  Catholic  writers  of  repute  for  my  estimate  of 
the  loss  in  their  several  countries ;  though,  no  doubt, 
when  Catholics  find  these  admissions  now  gathered 
together  for  the  first  time,  they  will  shrink  in  concern 
from  the  appalling  statement  of  deficit.  Anti-Catholic 
writers,  on  the  other  hand,  will  claim  that  I  have,  in 
view  of  the  evidence  I  give,  understated  the  Church's 
losses.  I  believe  I  have  ;  but  it  was  my  desire  to  reach 
a  conclusion  that  bore  no  trace  of  strain,  and  that 
the  average  impartial  reader  can  easily  gather  himseh 
from  the  statistics  and  authorities  I  have  quoted. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  largest  statements  of 
loss  in  my  account  are  based  on  the  most  positive 
figures,   and   cannot  be   questioned.     France,    Great 


300     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Britain,    the  United    States  and  Russia  account  for 
nearly  50,000,000  of  the  total  loss.      In  each  of  these 
cases  the  result  is  not  a  matter  of  estimate  at  all,  but 
of  exact  statistical  analysis ;   and   I  should  have  had 
the  support   of  very  high  authorities,  even  Catholic 
authorities,  if  I  had  put  the  loss  for  these  countries 
much  higher.     To  France  I  allow  a  Catholic  popula- 
tion 50  per  cent,  larger  than  that  claimed  by  Sabatier ; 
for  the  United  States  I   assign    a  loss  50   per   cent, 
lower  than  several  American  Catholic  writers  admit; 
for    Russia    I    have    claimed  the    minimum   that   the 
positive  figures  yield.      In  the   other   chief  instances 
of  loss — Italy,    Spain,    Spanish    America,    Germany, 
Austria  and  Belgium — my  conclusion  is  less  rigorous 
in  form.     To  an  extent  it  is  based  on  dwindling  per- 
centages, in  conjunction  with  a  high  birth-rate,  which 
evince  an  indisputable  loss  of  millions.     To  a  further 
extent  it  is  based  on  political  data  to  which  we  must 
assign  the  grave  importance  which  the  Church  itself 
attaches   to   the    political  fidelity  of  its  followers  in 
lands  where  there  is  a  definite  Catholic  party.     Only 
to  a  slight  extent  have  I  relied  on  literary  and  other 
indications  on  which  judgment  may  differ.     This  it  is 
imperative  to  note.     I  do  not  dogmatise  in  presenting 
a  positive  statement  of  the  Church's  loss,  but  merely 
put  together  the  plain    and  indisputable  indications, 
and  then   further  suggest  the  conclusion  that  seems 
to  be  warranted  where  exact  figures  fail.      No  doubt 
a   few    neutral    students   will   differ   from   me   to    the 
extent  of  a  few   millions,  but  I    feel    sure  they  will 
differ  in  the  sense  of  saying  that   I   have   submitted 
too  modest  an  estimate  of  the  Church's  loss  in  Italy, 
Spain  and  Spanish  America. 

Nor  must  the  reader  imagine  that  I  have  held  too 
rigorous  a  conception  of  what  is  or  is  not  a  Roman 
Catholic.      I   have   not  attempted  to   strike  off  every 


CONCLUSION  301 

man  who  does  not  go  to  church  every  Sunday. 
Where  church  attendance  has  been  used  as  a  test 
it  has  been  taken  generously,  and  allowance  has  been 
made  for  casual  absentees.  But  I  decline  to  regard 
as  a  Catholic  one  who  never  goes  to  mass  or  Easter 
communion,  or  who  habitually  supports  political 
parties  that  are  sternly  condemned  by,  and  openly 
hostile  to,  the  Church.  Where  there  is  obviously 
neither  belief  nor  obedience  to  commands  that,  on  the 
most  familiar  Catholic  principles,  bind  under  pain  of 
eternal  damnation,  I  do  not  see  how  a  census  declara- 
tion that  one  is  a  Roman  Catholic  can  be  taken 
seriously.  Our  experience  has  been,  in  so  many 
instances,  that  such  a  declaration  merely  means  that 
one  is  neither  Protestant  nor  Jew.  At  the  same  time, 
the  reader  must  not  imagine  that  I  have  struck  off  all 
who  do  thus  habitually  neglect  mass.  Only  in  a  few 
cases  have  we  the  exact  figures  of  churchgoers. 
Wherever  we  had  them,  we  found  that  they  cut  down 
the  nominal  Catholic  population  to  an  alarming  extent. 
It  is  probable  that  if  we  had  an  exact  return  of 
the  average  number  of  churchgoers  in  Germany, 
Austria,  Italy,  Spain  and  Spanish  America,  we  should 
have  to  add  many  more  million  seceders  to  the  list. 

With  this  reserve,  therefore,  I  proceed  to  state 
the  actual  number  of  Roman  Catholics  in  the  world. 
The  totals  at  the  conclusion  of  each  section  amount, 
together,  to  188,650,230.  I  do  not  for  a  moment 
suggest  that  all  these  are  "practising  Catholics."  If 
that  test  of  real  Catholicism  could  be  applied  over 
Central  and  Spanish  America,  for  instance,  we  should 
see  a  great  shrinkage  of  the  figure.  I  have  merely 
put  down  all  the  Catholics  claimed  where  I  had  not 
positive  grounds  for  lowering  the  figure ;  and  the 
vastness  of  my  subject  entitles  me  to  some  leniency. 
To  these,  however,  we  must  add  the  total  of  Roman 


302     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Catholics  on  the  foreign  missions.  I  have  already  in- 
cluded India  andthe  Philippines  and  other  countries  that 
properly  belong  to  this  group,  and  the  inquiry  we  made 
into  the  Indian  figures  warned  us  to  take  such  figures 
with  discretion.  We  saw  that  even  the  official  census 
was  enormously  below  the  Catholic  claim.  Farther 
India  claims  948,820  converts  ;  a  figure  which  is,  no 
doubt,  similarly  inflated,  but  the  whole  question  of  these 
mission  statistics  is  too  elusive  to  repay  strict  inquiry.1 
In  China  proper  the  Catholics  claim  to  have  720,540 
converts.  As  the  Jesuit  missionaries  there  had 
300,000  converts  in  the  seventeenth  century,  we 
might  be  prepared  to  entertain  this  result  of  the 
enormous  labours  and  expenditure  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  But  Protestant  missionaries,  and  even  such 
impartial  authorities  as  Sir  Robert  Hart,  would  have 
us  hesitate  in  interpreting  these  figures.  One  quota- 
tion will  suffice  to  indicate  that  we  must  regard  them 
as  we  did  the  figures  for  India.  The  Church  of 
England  Missionary  Society's  Report  for  i8gg  says 
(p.  329)  :  "  It  is  now  a  very  common  practice  for  men 
whose  sole  object  is  to  plunder,  to  avoid  paying  their 
debts,  and  to  escape  punishment  by  the  authorities, 
to  place  their  names  as  Romanists  on  the  register  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  They  are  then  entitled 
to  the  protection  of  the  Romish  priest  and  bishop, 
and  of  the  French  Consul ;  and  can,  and  do,  commit 
acts  of  violence  with  impunity."     These  things  have 

1  Besides  that  very  contradictory  figures  are  offered  us.  Cardinal 
Vaughan  (Ency.  Brit,  supplementary  edition)  gives  783,237  for 
Farther  India  and  Indo-China.  The  Statesman's  Year  Book  gives 
893,234.  The  Encyclopedia  0/ Missions  gives  948,829.  The  anti- 
Catholic  writer  may  reasonably  complain  that  I  take  the  most 
generous  figure.  In  almost  all  the  other  cases  I  pass  over  Cardinal 
Vaughan's  smaller  figures,  and  admit  the  larger  ones  in  other  writers ; 
though  Cardinal  Vaughan  wrote  in  the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 


CONCLUSION  303 

had  much  to  do  with  the  anti-Christian  riots  oi  the 
Chinese — one  of  the  most  tolerant  of  nations.  In 
Japan,  where  also  material  benefit  somewhat  com- 
plicates the  spiritual  change,  and  where  it  is  common 
for  a  man  to  have  at  least  two  religions  (Shinto  and 
Buddhism),  the  Church  will  hardly  claim  great  pro- 
gress. The  Jesuits  had  600,000  converts  there  in 
1582,  and  the  modern  Catholics  are  chiefly  found  in 
the  old  centres.  The  Encyclopedia  of  Missions  gives 
them  as  numbering  53,400,  but  as  one  of  the  most 
recent  missionary  writers  says  ("The  Christian  Faith 
in  Japan  ") :  "  It  is  difficult  to  obtain  reliable  figures, 
especially  in  the  case  of  the  Roman  missions."  In 
Korea  they  claim  32,200  followers;  in  Java  49,800; 
in  the  Pacific  Islands,  109,388  ;  in  Africa  (besides 
those  we  have  given)  about  200,000/  It  is  useless 
to  discuss  these  figures.  Altogether  they  yield  a 
total  of  2,114,148  for  the  foreign  missions,  besides 
those  we  have  included  in  previous  chapters.  Let 
us  add  them  en  bloc  to  the  Catholic  total,  which  will 
then  stand  at  190,764,378. 

But  this  grand  total  of  membership  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  has  now  to  be  examined  from  the 
point  of  view  of  cultural  value.  The  childish  practice 
of  "counting  heads  "  no  longer  finds  the  favour  it  did. 
The  serious  social  student  looks  to  quality  rather  than 
quantity,  and  in  the  present  inquiry  this  is  peculiarly 
necessary.  The  immense  losses  that  the  Church  of 
Rome  has  sustained  have  had  many  causes,  but  our 
inquiry  has  made  it  clear  that  popular  education 
has  been  one  of  the  most  serious  of  these.  Where 
a  large  Catholic  population,  like  that  of  Ireland  or 
Poland,  has  been  taken  out  of  its  narrow  groove,  and 
has  made  acquaintance  with  other  religions,  the  effect 

1  According  to  the  Encyclopedia  of  Missions,  from  Catholic  sources. 
Secular  authorities  always  give  lower  numbers. 


304  DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

has  been  disastrous.  Where  a  nation,  like  the  French, 
the  Italian,  the  Spanish,  or  the  Spanish-American, 
has  been  liberated  somewhat  from  the  mist  of  dense 
ignorance,  there  has  been  the  same  disastrous  result. 
The  new  enlightenment  and  freedom  of  the  mass 
of  the  people  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  great  revolt  in 
Catholic  countries.  If,  therefore,  any  large  proportion 
of  the  Vatican's  following  still  awaits  the  inevitable 
shock  of  this  first  enlightenment  the  outlook  is  dark 
for  Roman  authority. 

On  this  point  I  have  only  to  sum  up  the  statements 
as  to  cultural  condition  that  I  have  made  as  we  pro- 
ceeded. Of  the  Vatican's  190,000,000  followers  more 
than  1 20,000,000  are  illiterate.  That  grave  statement 
is  fully  borne  out  by  the  references  to  cultural  con- 
dition that  I  have  made  throughout  the  work.  The 
reader  may  indeed  be  reconciled  to  it  at  once  by  glanc- 
ing back  at  the  chapters  on  the  Latin  world.  There 
he  will  find  that  southern  Italy,  where  the  bulk  of  the 
Italian  Catholics  are  found,  is  illiterate  to  the  extent 
of  70  per  cent.,  Spain  to  nearly  the  same  extent,  and 
Portugal  to  the  extent  of  78  per  cent.  ;  and,  as  the 
majority  of  the  literates  have  seceded,  the  Catholic 
percentage  of  illiteracy  rises  much  higher  still.  This 
accounts  for  35,000,000  illiterate  Catholics.  Then 
there  are  48,000,000  in  Spanish  America  whom  it  is 
more  than  polite  to  describe  as  illiterate.  Half  of 
them  are  only  imperfectly  civilised.  We  have  next 
the  Catholics  of  Russia,  and  the  Slavonic  communities 
of  Austria- Hungary  and  the  Balkan  States — most  of 
them  illiterate  to  an  extent  varying  between  75  and 
80  per  cent.  The  Latins  and  Slavs  alone  furnish 
more  than  100,000,000  illiterate  followers  of  the 
Vatican  (if  we  include  the  Spanish  Americans) ;  and 
with  these  we  must  associate  most  of  the  Asiatic  and 
African  Catholics.     For  the  other  countries  I  allow 


CONCLUSION  305 

the  official  rates  of  illiterates  ;  with  due  regard  to 
such  circumstances  as  the  lower  literacy  of  the 
Catholic  than  the  Protestant  cantons  of  Switzerland, 
the  illiteracy  of  Catholic  immigrants  into  the  United 
States,  and  the  great  preponderance  of  the  peasantry 
in  the  Catholic  population  of  Austria,  Belgium, 
Germany  and  France. 

This  rapid  survey  will  show  the  reader  at  once  that 
the  terrible  figure  of  120,000,000  illiterates  in  a  total 
of  190,000,000 — a  figure  that,  of  course,  I  have 
obtained  by  careful  analysis — is  in  reality  a  very 
moderate  one.  It  means,  in  plain  English,  that  the 
majority  of  the  Roman  Catholics  of  the  world  to-day 
consist  of  American  Indians,  half-castes,  negroes  and 
mulattoes  ;  Italian,  Spanish,  Russian  and  Slavonic 
peasants  of  the  most  backward  character  ;  and  Indian, 
Indo-Chinese,  and  African  natives.  These  make 
up  much  more  than  half  of  the  whole.  Further, 
the  great  bulk  of  the  remainder  are  the  peasants 
and  poor  workers  of  Germany,  Austria,  France, 
Belgium  and  Ireland.  The  seceders  from  Rome 
we  found  to  be  literate  in  such  a  very  high  propor- 
tion that  the  contrast  between  faithful  and  unfaithful 
must  have  a  very  different  complexion  for  the  social 
observer  from  that  which  the  Church  petulantly  seeks 
to  put  on  it.  Indeed,  this  aspect  of  Catholicism  is 
perhaps  the  most  important  of  all.  When  we  note 
the  extraordinary  impotence  of  Catholicism  in  the 
great  cities  of  Europe ;  when  we  learn,  in  country 
after  country,  that  the  middle  class  forsook  it  a  genera- 
tion ago,  and  the  artisans  are  abandoning  it  to-day ; 
when  we  find  its  authority  rejected  almost  in  propor- 
tion as  a  nation  is  touched  with  culture  ;  and  when  we 
see  that  its  larger  tracts  of  unchallenged  authority 
so  constantly  correspond  with  the  darker  areas  in  the 
cultural  map  of  the    world — we    see  that   its    power 


306     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

rests  largely  on  a  basis  that  is  directly  and  triumph- 
antly challenged  by  the  modern  spirit — a  basis  of 
ignorance. 

Thus  the  decay  of  the  Church  of  Rome  is  likely  to 
continue  with  unabated  speed,  unless  there  is  some 
revolution  in  its  policy.  The  Vatican  is  confronted 
with  two  grave  dilemmas  to-day,  or  will  be  so  con- 
fronted when  the  pathetic  figure  of  Pius  X.  has  passed 
away,  and  a  statesman  comes  to  the  throne.  The 
first  dilemma  is  in  regard  to  culture,  the  second  in 
regard  to  politics. 

Without  entering  into  theological  considerations  I 
may  submit  that  for  people  of  any  culture  the  Roman 
theology,  the  most  ample  and  conservative  epitome  of 
medieval  beliefs,  is  no  longer  possible  except  there 
be  granted  a  broad  liberty  of  interpretation  in  a 
symbolic  sense.  One  has  only  to  note  the  fact  that, 
with  more  than  100,000,000  followers  in  the  civilised 
world,  the  Catholic  Church  is  singularly  poor  in 
representatives  in  the  front  line  of  culture  ;  and  when 
its  Mivarts  and  its  Actons  die  we  learn  on  what 
terms  they  held  the  Catholic  creed.  But  I  have  fully 
illustrated  this  in  the  chapter  on  English  Catholicism. 
Under  Pius  X.  this  liberty  will  not  be  granted,  and 
the  cultural  level  will  sink  lower  and  lower.  The 
modernists  will  carry  on  their  spirited  fight  with  the 
Vatican,  but  if  the  present  regime  last  long  enough 
they  will  be  driven  out,  or  coerced  into  silence.  They 
have  been  betrayed  by  thousands  of  priests  whom 
they  know,  and  many  of  us  know,  to  be  in  complete 
sympathy  with  them.  But  the  next  regime,  especially 
if  it  come  in  time  to  have  Vannutelli  as  its  leader, 
will  undo  the  mischief,  and  cultured  exiles  will  return 
to  the  Church  in  hundreds. 

But  the  dilemma  arises  when  one  thinks  what  the 
effect   of  the  change  will   be  on  the  less  cultivated 


CONCLUSION  307 

followers.  They  have  not  the  subtlety  of  culture, 
and  will  be  apt  to  see  only  that  dogmas  that  were 
supported  with  the  penalty  of  damnation  a  few  years 
before  may  now  be  cavalierly  rejected.  They  will 
see  that  the  supreme  head,  or  heads,  of  the  Church 
made  a  profound  and  disastrous  blunder.  They  will 
realise  that  the  claim  of  infallibility  was  an  elaborate 
myth — the  papacy  a  lath  painted  to  look  like  iron. 
The  grim  arsenal  of  the  Vatican  will  turn  out,  as  did 
that  of  China  some  decades  ago,  to  consist  of  wooden 
imitations  of  guns  and  painted  dragons  and  innocent 
crackers.  The  change  will  surely  come.  Either  of 
the  Italian  candidates  will  concede  it — one  openly, 
the  other  discreetly — and  Germany  and  America  will 
discover  their  power.  But  the  change  will  come  too 
late  for  Catholics  to  have  an  esoteric  and  an  exoteric 
creed.  The  cultural  line  is  not  now  sharp  enough 
the  swarm  and  persistency  of  journals  too  great. 
Hence  the  dilemma  is  a  really  grave  one,  and  even 
the  inevitable  and  proper  decision  to  grant  liberty 
will  reduce  the  dimensions  while  it  improves  the 
quality  of  the  Church. 

The  political  dilemma  is  even  more  serious.  We 
have  seen  illustrations  of  it  in  so  many  countries  that 
I  need  only  recall  it.  Without  indulging  in  political 
speculations,  it  is  enough  to  note  that  in  Germany, 
France,  Austria,  Italy,  Spain,  Spanish  America, 
Belgium,  Holland,  and  to  an  extent  in  other  countries, 
the  Catholic  body  is  rent  by  a  political  struggle.  The 
rulers,  the  wealthy  and  the  middle  class  see  a  menace 
to  their  interests  in  the  emergence  of  the  proletariate 
in  the  political  world.  The  Church  had  had  so  poor 
an  experience  of  rulers  and  middle  class  that,  when 
the  idea  at  last  became  current  that  the  proletariate 
had  come  to  stay,  it  coquetted  with  democracy.  Then 
there    was    hope    of   regaining    the    rulers    and    the 

U2 


308     DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 

Liberals  by  taking  the  other  side,  and  it  was  taken. 
The  result  has  been  that  the  Catholic  workers  have 
smiled  at  the  Vatican's  thunders,  and  abandoned  the 
Church  in  millions.  What  is  to  be  done  ?  I  venture  to 
think  that  a  different  policy  will  be  followed  in  different 
countries,  and  that  the  broad  attitude  will  be  in  the 
end  that  the  Church  must  cease  to  meddle  with 
politics  and  economics.  This  will  undoubtedly  mean 
an  enormous  sacrifice  of  power  and  prestige,  and  the 
cultural  opponents  of  the  Church  will  be  freer  than 
ever  to  detach  its  followers.  The  American  dream 
of  a  democratic  Church  is  useless.  The  democracy 
does  not  ask  its  aid  anywhere  ;  the  rulers  do.  In 
either  event  the  Church  will  suffer  further  losses. 

But  I  shrink  from  forecasts.  It  is  enough  to  have 
thrown  some  light  on  the  actual  position  of  the 
Catholic  body.  If  that  light  is  too  strong  for  the 
nerves  of  its  adherents  I  can  only  say  that  I  have  not 
sought  to  give  pain,  but  have  written,  without  any 
feeling,  on  a  question  of  great  public  interest.  A  first 
effort  to  survey  so  wide  a  field,  and  thread  one's  way 
through  so  many  literatures,  is  bound  to  be  imperfect. 
It  is  claimed  only  that  sufficient  sound  material  is 
gathered  here  for  establishing  the  conclusion  that  the 
Church  of  Rome  has  been  decaying  rapidly  throughout 
the  nineteenth  century,  and  the  process  is  not  in  the 
least  arrested  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth 
century.  Such  losses  as  those  we  saw  in  connection 
with  Ireland  and  Poland,  and  the  lapse  of  millions  for 
sheer  lack  of  priests  in  the  United  States,  or  under 
political  pressure  in  Russia,  will  not  recur.  But  new 
agencies  are  at  work.  The  agencies  that  secularised 
France  are  following  the  same  paths  in  Italy  and 
Spain  and  Spanish  America.  The  fight  with  modern 
culture  is  going  unequally  in  Germany  and  the 
United  States.     Its  unity  torn  into  shreds,  its  clergy 


CONCLUSION  309 

coerced  by  an  ignorant  despotism  and  harassed  by 
the  spies  of  a  modern  Inquisition,  its  body  so  largely 
composed  of  ignorant  peasants  whose  faith  has  no 
root  in  measured  conviction,  the  outlook  of  the 
Church  is  as  dark  as  the  whole  stretch  of  its  history 
has  been  for  the  last  century  and  a  quarter. 


INDEX 


Act  of  Toleration,  the,  133 
Africa,  Catholicism  in,  303 
Albi,  Archbishop  of,  39 
Alfonso  XII.,  76 
Alsace-Lorraine,  206,  213 
Alva,  259 

Amadeo  of  Savoy,  76 
Andre,  Rev.  Tony,  55 
Angouleme,  Catholicism  in,  30 
Antonelli,  Cardinal,  47 
Argentine,  the  Church  in  the,  HO 
Associations  Bill,  the,  38 
Australia,  the  Church  in,  160- 166 
Austriacus,  236 

Balan,  48 

Balmez,  Father,  285 

Barcelona,  persecution  at,  78,  79 

Bavaria,  Kulturkampf  in,  208 

Bazin,  52 

Bela,  Dr,  244 

Benkendorf,  291 

Berlin,  Catholicism  in,  221 

Birth-rate  in  Austria,  234 

,,         in  Germany,  212 
Bismarck,  205,  209-211 
Bodley,  Mr,  17,  27,  37,  171 
Bohemia,  Catholicism  in,  228-229,  236 
Bolivia,  the  Church  in,  120 
Bonaparte,  Prince  R.,  102,  103 
Booth,  Charles,  142 
Boulanger,  21 
Bourgain,  Abbe,  17 
Brandenburg,  201 
Braye,  Lord,  139 
Brazil,  the  Church  in,  106 
British  Empire,  the  Church  in  the,  170 
Broglie,  Abbe  de,  25 
Brunetiere,  F.,  37,  39 
Btichi,  Dr,  252 

Buenos  Aires,  Catholicism  in,  in 
Burgundy,  Catholicism  in,  27 

Cahensly,  Mr,  on  leakage,  178 
Canada,  the  Church  in,  152-160 
Carbonari,  the,  46 
Carlists,  the,  74 
Catherine  II.,  290 
Catholic  Emancipation,  134 

3" 


Catholic  Encyclopedia,  147 

Census  declarations  of  religion,  51,  155, 

156 
Centre  Party,  origin  of  the,  207,  208 
Ceylon,  the  Church  in,  167 
Charles  X.,  19 

Charles  XII.  in  Bohemia,  229 
Chile,  the  Church  in,  119 
China,  Catholicism  in,  302 
Coliseum,  the,  4 
Colquhoun,    Mr   and   Mrs,    232,    243, 

244 
Colombia,  the  Church  in,  113 
Consalvi,  44 
Corruption  at  Rome,  45 
Costa  Rica,  123 
Crestey,  Abb6,  29 
Cuba,  the  Church  in,  117 
Culture  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  8-9 
Czechs,  the,  236,  239 
Czerski,  Father,  204 

Daens,  Abbe,  269 
Daily  News  census,  142 
DAnnunzio,  Gabriele,  66 
Davitt,  Mr,  136 

Declaration  of  Independence,  174 
Delassus,  Canon,  on  leakage,  178 
Demain,  40 
Denmark,  295 
Dessaine,  Abbe,  26 
Diaz,  Porfirio,  104 
Droste-Vischering,  Archbishop,  203 
Dupanloup,  Mgr. ,  18 

Easter  duties,  20 
Ecuador,  the  Church  in,  1 19 
Education  in  Spain,  91 
El  Progreso,  III 
Elder,  Mr,  on  leakage,  180 
Electra,  85 

Emigration  in  Germany,  215 
England,  Bishop,  175 
England,  numbers  of  Catholics  in,  146 
Escuela  Moderna,  the,  87 
Ex-priests  in  England,  147 
,,  ,,  France,  32 

Falk  Laws,  the,  209,  210 


312      DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 


Farther  India,  Catholicism  in,  302 

Febronius,  203 

Ferdinand,  King,  72 

Ferrer  Guardia,  F. ,  80 

Ferri,  Enrico,  64 

Fiamingo,  Professor,  54 

Fischer,  52 

Fitzgerald,  P.,  136,  140,  141 

Flemings,  the,  271 

Fogazzaro,  53,  63 

France,  Anatole,  17,  29 

Franchi,  Ausonio,  48 

Frederick  the  Great,  201,  229 

Frederick  William  III.,  203 

Free?nan,s  Journal,  on  leakage,  178 

Freemasons  in  the  Argentine,  ill 

,,         in  Cuba,  117 

,,         in  Portugal,  96 

,,         in  Spain,  86 
Freeth ought  Congress  at  Rome,  60,  61 
French,  the,  in  Canada,  153-154 
French  refugees  in  England,  133 
French  Revolution,  the,  15 

Garcia,  F.  P.,  103 

Gasquet,  Abbot,  134,  136,  138 

Genoa,  strike  at,  56 

German  Catholic  Church,  the,  204 

Ghio,  Paul,  56 

Gibbons,  Cardinal,  31 

Godoy,  71 

Gotor  de  Burbaguena,  84 

Greece,  the  Church  in,  295 

Greek  Uniates,  the,  287-290 

Gregory  XIII.,  13 

Gregory  XVI.,  45,  46 

Griffiths,  Bishop,  134 

Guatemala,  the  Church  in,  ill,  115 

Guyot,  Yves,  28 

Haeckel,  Professor,  52 

Haiti,  the  Church  in,  121 

Hamburg,  Catholicism  in,  222 

Hasselt,  Catholicism  in,  272 

Hays,  Leonce,  29 

Holy  Roman  Empire,  end  of  the,  230 

Honduras,  the  Church  in,  121 

"Hors  de  Rome"  movement,  33 

Houghton,  Mr,  77 

Houtin,  Abbe,  38,  40 

Hume,  Major,  71,  74,  75,  77,  80 

Hungary,  the  Church  in,  242 

Hutton,  Mr  E.,  55 

//  Santo,  53,  63 

Illegitimate  births  in  Catholic  countries , 

238 
Illiteracy  of  Roman  Catholics,  304 

,,         in  Austria,  238 

,,         in  Hungary,  246 

,,         in  Italy,  59 


Illiteracy   in  Spain,  89,  91 

,,         in  Spanish  America,  124 

,,         in  Switzerland,  256 

,,         in  the  United  States,  193 

Immigration  into  Switzerland,  253 

„         ,,  the  United  States,  182-186 

India,  the  Church  in,  167 

Indo-China,  the  Church  in,  302 

Indulgences,  sale  of,  in  Spain,  92 

Infallibility,  47 

Inquisition,  the,  44 

Ireland,  Archbishop,  177 

Ireland,  the  Church  in,  130 

Irish,  dispersal  of  the,  129 

„    the,  in  England,  136,  137,  139, 
142 

Isaacson,  Mr,  89,  109 

Japan,  Catholicism  in,  303 

Java,  the  Church  in,  303 

Jesuits,  the,  in  France,  19 
,,         in  Poland,  286 
,,         in  Switzerland,  250 

Jews  in  Austria,  the,  239 

Jordan,  Dr,  233 

Joseph  II.,  229 

Josephism,  229 

Journals  suppressed  by  Rome,  40 

Juarez,  104 

July  Revolution,  the,  16 

Juraschek,  Dr,  15,  212,  245 

Kannengieser,  Abbe,  221 
Kennedy,  Mr  Bart,  82 
King,  Mr  Bolton,  44,  45,  51 
Korea,  the  Church  in,  303 
Kossuthists,  the,  246 
Krose,  Father,  205,  212 
Kuiper,  Dr,  278,  281,  284 
Kulturkampf,  the,  205,  207-210 

Lamennais,  16, 

Las  Dominicales,  87 

Latin  Catholics,  II 

Leakage,  total,  from  the  Church,  298 

Leo  XIII.,  49 

,,         in  France,  21 
,,         death  of,  5 

Lerdo,  104 

L'Exode,  33 

Liberalism  in  Austria,  231-232 
,,  in  Italy,  46 

,,  in  Spain,  71,  72,  73,  86 

,,  in  Spanish  America,  99 

Loisy,  Abb6,  38,  39 

London,  Catholicism  in,  134,  138,  140- 
144 

"  Los-von-Rom  "  movement,  the,  240 

Louis  XVI.,  16 

Louis  Philippe,  16 

Louvain  University,  270-271 


INDEX 


313 


Lozano,  Senor,  87 

Lucerne,  Catholicism  in,  249,  250 

Lugano,  Catholicism  in,  255 

Lutz,  208 

Luxemburg,  295 

Magalhaes  Lima,  95 

Magyars,  the,  242 

Marriage  in  Catholic  churches,  107 

Marriage-rate  in  England,  145 

Mass,  obligation  to  attend,  23 

Mauritius,  the  Church  in,  169 

May  Laws,  the,  209,  2IO 

Mazzini,  46 

McCarthy,  M.,  130,  131 

Meric,  Dr  E.,  25 

Mexico,  the  Church  in,  102- 106 

Minocchi,  Dr,  63 

Mitchell,  Father,  140 

Mixed  marriages  in  Germany,  218,  223 

Modernism,  67 

,,  in  Germany,  226 

Moleschott,  48 

Monaco,  295 

Monastic  property,  35,  36 

Monasticism  in  Belgium,  274 
,,  in  Spain,  89,  90 

„  in  France,  34-38 

Month,  the,  14 

Montjuich,  torture  at,  78,  79 

Morality  in  Italy,  65 

,,       of  Catholic  countries,  238 

Moran,  Cardinal,  161 

Morote,  L. ,  83 

Mudie  Smith,  Mr,  143 

Mullen,  Father,  178 

Murphy,  Mr  T.,  136,  138,  139 

Murri,  Dr,  57,  62,  63 

Napoleon  I.,  15,  46 
III.,  17 

National  Review,  7 

New  Brunswick,  the  Church  in,  158 

New  South  Wales,  the  Church  in,  163, 

i65 
New  Zealand,  the  Church  in,  166 
Newman,  conversion  of,  135 
Netherlands,  Protestantism  in  the,  259, 

277 
Nicaragua,  121 
Niebuhr,  202 
Nicholas  I.,  270,  291 
Nocedal,  84 
Non  expedit,  the,  49,  58 
Norway,  295 

O'Gokman,  T.,  176 
O'Kane  Murray,  J.,  on  leakage,  178 
Old  Catholics,  the,  210,  220,  241 
Ontario,  the  Church  in,  157 
Orsi,  45,  46 


Pan-Germanism,  239 

Pan-Slav  movement,  the,  239,  243 

Panama,  122 

Papal  States,  the,  44,  45 

Paraguay,  the  Church  in,  122 

Paris,  Catholicism  in,  23,  28,  29 

Passarge,  L.,  69 

Paterson,  Bishop,  132 

Perez  Galdos,  92 

Peru,  the  Church  in,  118 

Pey-Ordeix,  Segismondo,  86 

Philippines,  the  Church  in  the,  123 

Pieper,  Pastor,  203,  212 

Pius  VII.,  44 

Pius  IX.,  46,  47,  49 

Pius  X.,  5 

Poland,  partition  of,  202,  230,  2S8 

Polish  Independent  Church,  the,  293 

Positivism  in  Brazil,  108 

Positivists  and  Rome,  2,  3 

Prediction  of  Rome's  future,  1-4 

Priests  in  England,  144 

Protestantism  in  France,  15 

,,  in  Germany,  213-215 

,,  in  Mexico,  106 

,,  in  Spain,  77,  81 

Prussia,  conversion  of,  201 

Quebec,  the  church  in,  157 
Quirinal,  the,  in  the  Vatican,  49 


Ramon  de  Torre-Isunza,  84 

Rationalists  and  Rome,  2,  3 

Reformation,  the,  44 

,,  in  the  Low  Countries,  259 

,,  in  Switzerland,  249 

Religious  communities  in  France,  34 

Republicanism  in  Portugal,  96 

Restrepo,  J.  R. ,  114 

Revolution  in  Austria,  230 

Rhine  Provinces,  the,  201,  202 

Romanists  of  Germany,  202 

Ronge,  Father,  204 

Ruthenians,  the,  244 

Sabatier,  8,  18,  31 

Salvador,  the  Church  in,  121 

Santo  Domingo,  the  Church  in,  121 

Sarraga,  Senora,  87 

Sarrasi,  83 

School  attendance  in  England,  145-146 

Scotland,  the  Church  in,  148-149 

Scraggs,  W.  L. ,  »oo 

Seceders,  total  number  of,  298 

Semi-Rationalism,  203 

Serbo-Croats,  the,  244 

Sertillanges,  Pere,  5,  25,  26 

Shinnors,  Father,  on  leakage,  179 

Sierra,  Justus,  104 


314      DECAY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME 


Slavs,  the,  and  Catholicism,  239,  243 

Slovaks,  the,  244 

Slovenes,  the,  239 

Sobieski,  2S9 

Social  Democrats,  origin  of  the,  210, 

224 
Socialism  in  Belgium,  266 
in  Italy,  55-60 
Sonderbund,  the,  251 
South  Africa,  the  Church  in,  169 
Spanish  America,  the  Church  in,  100 
Spanish  literature,  85 
Statesmanship  at  the  Vatican,  12 
Steiner,  Father,  287 
Strand  Magazine,  5 
Sweden,  295 
Syllabus,  the,  48 

Taine  on  French  Catholicism,  22-24 
Tarrida  del  Marmol,  Professor,  79 
Thirlmere,  R.,  82 
Thirty  Years'  War,  the,  228 
Ticino,  Catholicism  in,  255 
Treves,  the  Coat  of,  204 
Turinaz,  Mgr.,  21,  23,  27 
Turkey,  the  Church  in,  295 


Van  Diemen's  Land,  161 
Vannutelli,  Cardinal,  306 
Vatican,  the,  and  Italy,  49 

,,       blunders  of  trie,  12,  13 
Vatican  Council,  the,  206 
Vaughan,  Archbishop,  140 
Venezuela,  the  Church  in,  120 
Veuillot,  16 

Victoria,  the  Church  in,  163,  165 
Vienna,  Catholicism  in,  235 
Virchow,  207 

Volkspartei,  the,  in  Austria,  239 
Von  Fircks,  212,  215 


Walburg,  Father,  on  leakage,  179 

Waldeck  Rousseau,  35 

Walloons,  the,  271,  273 

Wells,  H.  G.,2 

Werner,  Father,  138 

William  I.,  205 

Wilmotte,  262,  264 

Windthorst,  207 

Wormeley,  Elizabeth,  83 

Wright,  Dr  Carroll,  176 


Urba,  Dr,  233 

Uruguay,  the  Church  in,  III,  114 


Zwingli,  249 


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